TUNIS: The our bodies of 9 migrants from sub-Saharan African international locations have been present in western Tunisia, close to the border with Algeria, in latest days, a judicial official mentioned on Wednesday.
Tunisia, whose shoreline is lower than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa, has lengthy been a popular stepping stone for migrants making an attempt the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Europe.
The our bodies have been found within the mountains close to Haidra, a city in Kasserine province, and authorities have launched an investigation that would come with autopsies “to find out the reason for demise,” mentioned Riadh Nwiwi, spokesman for the Kasserine courtroom.
The Tunisian Discussion board for Financial and Social Rights, a migrant help group, mentioned in an announcement that “preliminary data” factors to “chilly, thirst and fatigue” because the causes of the migrants’ deaths.
Nwiwi famous an increase in irregular migration from different components of Africa throughout the Algeria-Tunisia border, and particularly within the forested space close to Haidra.
FTDES urged Tunisian authorities to offer a “humanitarian response” to the “lethal migration insurance policies of the European Union which has contravened the fitting to motion of the individuals of the (World) South.”
Because the begin of the yr, dozens of migrants have drowned in a sequence of shipwrecks off Tunisia’s shores whereas attempting to succeed in Europe. The group denounced “the silence of the Tunisian authorities on the tragedies of migration and the coverage of militarization of the borders.”