By Ebi Kesiena
Tunisia’s coastguard on Sunday noted that the bodies of 29 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries had been recovered after three vessels capsized.
It also rescued 11 illegal migrants of various African nationalities after their boats sank off the central eastern coast, it said in a statement, citing three separate sinkings.
In one incident, a Tunisian fishing trawler recovered 19 bodies 58 kilometres (36 miles) off the coast after their boat capsized.
A coastguard patrol off the coastal city of Mahdiya also recovered eight bodies and “rescued” 11 other migrants after their boat sank as it headed towards Italy.
Fishing trawlers in Sfax meanwhile recovered two other bodies.
A string of shipwrecks have left dozens of migrants dead and others missing since President Kais Saied made an incendiary speech last month, accusing sub-Saharan Africans of representing a demographic threat and causing a crime wave in Tunisia.
Black migrants in the country have faced a spike in violence and hundreds have been living in the streets for weeks in increasingly desperate conditions.
People fleeing poverty and violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, West Africa and other parts of the continent have for years used Tunisia as a springboard for often perilous attempts to reach safety and better lives in Europe.
