Iran Press/ Africa: According to the International Organization for Migration, this year 1,800 people who tried to migrate from North Africa to Europe have drowned at sea.
African immigrants and refugees who are facing security and economic problems in their countries, hoping to get better conditions, try to reach the European continent through the unsafe route of the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea by boarding human trafickers' boats.
At least five people died on Monday and seven others are missing after their Europe-bound migrant boat sank off Tunisia's coast, a judicial official in the city of Sfax told AFP.
“Sfax coastguard units rescued 23 people and recovered 11 bodies of migrants whose boat sank off the coast of Sidi Mansour in Sfax on Monday morning. The boat was carrying mostly Tunisians, but also a number of sub-Saharan Africans,” it added.
Court spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi said "35 people, most of them Tunisians" including women and children were on board the boat that went down "shortly after departing from the coast of Sidi Mansour" near Sfax. 219
