At least 29 African migrants and asylum seekers were found dead and 11 others were rescued Sunday when three boats trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Italy capsized along the Tunisian coast, according to the Tunisian Coast Guard.
it stopped 79 illegal maritime crossings and arrested nearly 3,000 migrants, almost all from African countries.previous 24 hours, 2,000 refugees and asylum seekers arrived at the refugee reception center on the island of Lampedusa. The center has an official capacity of less than 400, according to ANSA.
The flow of mainly sub-Saharan and West Africans up through North Africa and onward by sea to Europe, where they hope to find safety from conflict and poverty, has been ongoing for years. Libya, Tunisia’s southeastern neighbor, was previously the main launching point. But after crackdowns by the Libyan and European governments, migration patterns began shifting to Tunisia, which is now the leading transit point.
The latest escalation came in late February, when Saied blamed “hordes of irregular migrants” for violence and crime in Tunisia. The Tunisian president alsoand accused Africans in the country of being part of a conspiratorial plot to make Tunisia “only an African country that has no affiliation to Arab and Islamic nations.”
Saied made these remarks Feb. 21 to his national security advisers. His critics — who the president is also cracking down on — dismissed the president’s comments as a xenophobic ploy to distract the country from mounting economic and political troubles.In the weeks that followed, rights groups documented a rise in anti-Black violence and xenophobic incidents as the Tunisian government accelerated roundups of African migrants without residency papers. Racist speech snowballed online.
The Tunisian president’s racist remarks only increased the desire of Africans to leave Tunisia — and the opportunities for smugglers with unsafe boats to exploit them, said Ben Amor.
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