Migrants, Mediterranea: ‘19 dead and 21 missing in a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia’

Milan, 30 March (LaPresse) – The initial death toll from the shipwreck of a vessel that set sail from the Tunisian port of Sfax on the morning of 28 March with 56 people on board stands at 19 dead and 21 missing; the boat encountered stormy seas shortly after leaving the coast. This is according to Mediterranea Saving Humans, which set sail from Lampedusa on Sunday morning aboard the sailing boat Safira, currently on a mission from the island. “Unfortunately, in the last few hours we have learnt from local sources that the boat which left Sfax has sunk a few miles off the coast in North African territorial waters. The Tunisian National Guard intervened at the scene, rescuing and bringing ashore only 16 survivors, recovering 19 bodies, whilst 21 people are still missing,” the NGO reports. Furthermore, according to Mediterranea, “during its routine patrol, an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat recovered a body today, which had likely been in the sea for several days, and brought it ashore at around 3 pm at the Favaloro pier” in Lampedusa.