Samples have actually been required to recognize the bodies of the migrants and refugees ‘due to the degree of decay’.
The bodies of 16 migrants and refugees have actually been recuperated by Tunisia’s coastguard off the nation’s eastern coast, the National Guard states, the current migrant boat catastrophe in the Mediterranean.
“The bodies were discovered at the weekend and on Monday … The victims have actually not been determined since the bodies had actually broken down,” a senior authorities in the National Guard, Houssem Eddine Jebabli, informed Reuters news company.
Samples have actually been required to recognize the bodies “due to the degree of decay”, stated Farid Ben Jha, spokesperson for the Monastir and Mahdia governorates’ public prosecution.
He stated the bodies were discovered in 3 various locations in Mahdia, among Tunisia’s hotspots for irregular migration.
Tunisia and neighbouring Libya have actually ended up being essential departure points for migrants and refugees, frequently from other African nations, who run the risk of risky Mediterranean Sea journeys in the hopes of much better lives in Europe.
Italy, whose Lampedusa island is just 150km (90 miles) from Tunisia, is typically their very first port of call. Every year, 10s of countless individuals try to make the crossing.
Last month, a minimum of 15 Tunisian individuals passed away, consisting of 3 babies, and 10 others went missing out on after their boat sank off the Tunisian coast at Djerba as they looked for to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. A minimum of 29 others were saved.
The bodies of 13 sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees were likewise recuperated in the exact same location last month.
Because January 1 this year, a minimum of 103 makeshift boats have actually capsized and 341 bodies have actually been recuperated off Tunisia’s coast, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
More than 1,300 individuals passed away or vanished in 2015 in shipwrecks off the North African nation, according to the Tunisian FTDES rights group.
The International Organization for Migration has actually stated more than 30,309 migrants and refugees have actually passed away in the Mediterranean in the previous years, consisting of more than 3,000 in 2015 throughout the huge sea.
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Al Jazeera and news firms