Local authorities reported on Monday that an additional seven bodies, believed to be those of migrants who perished in a shipwreck off Tunisia, have been found washed ashore.
The discovery has now raised the confirmed death toll to 11, leaving 44 individuals still missing and only two fortunate enough to be rescued.
A judicial official stated on Sunday that the migrants on the ill-fated boat, which sank near Tunisia’s Kerkennah island close to the port of Sfax, hailed from sub-Saharan African countries.
Between January 1 and July 20 of this year, the Tunisian coast guard retrieved an unprecedented number of 901 bodies of migrants who had drowned off its coast.
This year, the North African country is grappling with an unprecedented surge in migration and frequent tragic incidents involving boats attempting to reach the Italian coast.
Tunisia has taken over from Libya as the primary departure point in the region for individuals seeking to escape poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East, with aspirations of finding a better life in Europe.