TUNIS
\nTwenty-three people trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe from Tunisia have been missing for the past two weeks, the country\u2019s National Guard said in a statement on Saturday. The National Guard, which oversees the North African country\u2019s coastguard, said searches were still under way after the group departed in early May.
\n\u201cThey set sail overnight between May 3 and 4\u201d from the city of Nabeul, the statement said, adding that relatives of the missing only contacted the authorities 10 days later. Acting on orders from prosecutors in Nabeul, the National Guard said it had arrested five people allegedly involved in organising the crossing.
\nIt said two of the missing were related to some of the organisers. The National Guard also said it recovered four bodies later Saturday, after intercepting two crossing attempts to Europe and rescuing \u201c52 migrants\u201d near the city of Sfax, a main departure point for Italy.
\nThe National Guard did not specify the nationalities of the bodies and the rescued migrants. But a press release from the foreign ministry of Benin said that a \u201cboat carrying some 50 migrants of various nationalities, including from Benin\u201d, had capsized \u201con the night of May 16 to 17 off Tunisian coasts\u201d.
\n\u201cThis shipwreck caused dozens of losses of human life still currently being assessed,\u201d said the press release, adding that searches were ongoing to \u201cidentify the bodies of the victims\u201d. It remained unclear whether the shipwreck reported by the Benin authorities was related to the one Tunisia\u2019s National Guard said it intercepted.
\nTunisia is a key departure point for irregular migrants who risk perilous sea journeys hoping to reach Europe. More than 1,300 died or disappeared last year in shipwrecks, according to the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES), a non-governmental organisation.
\nLast week, authorities reported a 22.5 percent increase in the number of migrant interceptions, with more than 21,000 people prevented from leaving Tunisia or rescued during the first four months of 2024 According to the National Guard, 21,545 people were intercepted between January 1 and April 30, compared with 17,576 over the same period last year. \u2014 DNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TUNIS Twenty-three people trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe from Tunisia have been missing for the past two weeks, the country\u2019s National Guard said in a statement on Saturday. The National Guard, which oversees the North African country\u2019s coastguard, said searches were still under way after the group departed in early May. \u201cThey set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-408091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n