Tunisian fishermen recovered on Monday the bodies of eight migrants off the coast of the southern town of Zarzis, whose boat is likely to have sunk at the end of last month, a Red Crescent official said.
Families of the missing have been protesting since last week in Zarzis, saying that the state was not doing enough to determine the fate of their sons as it was likely their boat, carrying 18 people, had sunk.
“The fishermen who went out specifically to search for the drowned in this boat found eight bodies, waiting to be known precisely,” Red Crescent official Mongi Slim told Reuters.
EU statistics
In the first seven months of this year, there were about 155 090 irregular entries to the European Union, according to preliminary calculations. This represents an increase of 86% compared with the same period of last year.
In July, EU Member States recorded about 34 570 irregular crossings, 63% more than in the same month in 2021.
The Western Balkan continues to be the most active migratory route into the EU with 14 866 detections in July, nearly three times more than last year. The high number of illegal border crossings can be attributed to repeated crossing attempts by migrants already present in the Western Balkans.
The pressure remains also high on the Central Mediterranean route with daily arrivals putting strain on the reception capacities in Italy.
