A total of 75 people were missing after a full boat sank in Tunisia on Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration said in a statement from security officials, as the risk of crossing into Europe increased.
The IOM said 24 people had been rescued from the boat, from the beaches of Zawara in Libya to the shores of Sfax. A Tunisian security official told a coast guard they found the body as they continued to search for the missing 75 others.
In recent months, large numbers of people have drowned off the coast of Tunisia, with an increasing number of attempts to cross from Tunisia and Libya to Italy. Hundreds of thousands of people have crossed the dangerous Mediterranean in recent years. Statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that more than 1,23,000 immigrants arrived in Italy by 2021, compared to more than 95,000 by 2020.
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