Tunisia retrieves bodies of 41 drowned migrants

Tunisian coastguards have retrieved 41 bodies from Tunisian waters, raising the number of victims of refugee shipwrecks off the country’s coast to 210 in 10 days, national guard official has said.

The bodies were in a decomposed state, suggesting they had been in the water for several days, according to reports.

The cumulative total of fatalities was unprecedented over such a short period, he said.

Numbers of boats carrying asylum seekers – most from sub-Saharan Africa, Syria and Sudan – trying to reach Italy from Tunisia have risen sharply in recent months, in part due to a crackdown on departures by authorities in neighbouring Libya.

So many refugees risking the dangerous sea crossing from Tunisia to Europe have drowned that morgues and hospitals in the key launchpad city of Sfax are full, officials said Friday.

Tunisia, whose coastline is less than 150km (90 miles) from the Italian island of Lampedusa, has long been a favoured stepping stone for refugees attempting the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Europe.

According to Romdhane Ben Amor of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), at least 220 dead and missing have been recorded this year to April 24, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa.

More than three-quarters of refugees leaving Tunisia do so from the coast between Sfax and Mahdia, some 90km (55 miles) north, he added.

The problem of managing the bodies of those drowned in shipwrecks is complicated by the fact that local authorities “have undertaken to create a special cemetery for migrants on the grounds that they are not Muslims”, Ben Amor said.