Tunis, April 27, (dpa/GNA) – More than 1,800 Europe-bound migrants have been arrested and some 100 bodies recovered on the Tunisian coast since Sunday, the country’s coastguard said on Wednesday.
The National Coastguard said that on April 25 and 26 it thwarted 17 border crossings and seized 524 immigrants, including 75 Tunisians. The rest came from sub-Saharan African countries.
Security personnel arrested 71 other Tunisians who were preparing to make the sea crossing.
Earlier in the week, some 1,242 immigrants were arrested, mostly from sub-Saharan African countries. The coastguard also recovered dozens of rotting corpses.
A regional health official in Sfax said that the number of corpses in the morgue in the public hospital had reached about 100 in the space of a few days.
Tunisia is a key transit country for African migrants on their way to Italy, with more estimated to be passing through Tunisia than war-torn Libya.
Growing numbers of migrants have sought to leave Tunisia since President Kais Saied announced a tougher crackdown on them in February. Since then, attacks on migrants have increased.
Due to a worsening economic crisis, a growing number of Tunisians are also seeking to migrate from the North African country to Europe.
GNA