Tunisian authorities have recovered 11 bodies after a boat carrying migrants sank in the Mediterranean. The vessel, which had 15 people on board, capsized around 14 nautical miles off the country's south-east coast on Friday night.
One person was found alive, and a major search has been launched to locate the three remaining missing people. Tunisia's National Guard said the boat, which departed in the early hours of Thursday, was travelling towards Italy when it got into difficulty.
Search and recovery efforts
Officials did not say specifically where it was heading, but it was likely the island of Lampedusa — around 90 miles off Tunisia's coast — where migrants attempting to reach Europe regularly travel through. All of the migrants on board were from the Ben Guerdane area in south-east Tunisia, according to Reuters.
Dozens gathered in the town, close to the Libyan border, late on Saturday calling for search operations to be accelerated. Police reportedly fired tear gas to disperse protesters.
Deadliest migration route
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the central Mediterranean crossing is the world's deadliest migration route. Earlier this month, it said the number of migrant deaths on the route had more than doubled in the first four months of this year compared to 2025. At least 914 migrants have died or gone missing along the route since the start of the year, the IOM said.
On Sunday, the spokesperson for Tunisia's National Guard Directorate-General said teams from the coastguard, marine customs, navy and civil protection, as well as two helicopters, were all involved in the search for the missing people. Houssem Eddine Jebabli said three bodies were recovered on Saturday, with eight found on Sunday.
Victims and ongoing search
Most of the people on board the boat were said to be young. The head of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters that seven were members of the same family and a man with his pregnant wife.
