The bodies of 24 migrants who drowned after their boats sank off the coast of east-central Tunisia were thrown back into the sea at the end of April, a judicial source said Wednesday.
From 22 to 30 April, four boats left the coast of the region of Sfax have capsized off this city. In total, the bodies of 24 migrants were washed ashore after being reported missing initially, while 97 other people were rescued, said AFP spokesman of the court of Sfax, Mourad Turki.
The 24 bodies, including women and children, were transferred to the morgue of the regional hospital of Sfax, the only one to receive the remains of migrants who died in the region.
The morgue has received in recent months 92 bodies of migrants who died at sea, all from sub-Saharan Africa, of which forty “are piled up on the ground” for lack of space, said Turki. According to him, the morgue has filled up because “there is no more room” to bury the bodies in the cemetery for migrants in the region of Sfax.
Tunisia, one of the main departure points for migrants who want to reach Europe illegally, has been struggling for years to bury the remains of drowned candidates. The majority of the country’s municipalities refuse to take in charge the remains of migrants.
Nearly 2,000 migrants went missing or drowned in the Mediterranean last year, compared to 1,401 in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).