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Migrants drown off Tunisia

August 30, 2014

The bodies of scores of migrants have been recovered off the coast of Tunisia. They are believed to be people from Syria who drowned trying to reach Europe.

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Image: AP

Officials in Tunisia believe the migrants were probably some of the people who went missing earlier in the week when their boat capsized after it left the Libyan port of Zwara on its way to Italy. The sea currents washed the bodies onto Tunisia's shores.

"Forty-one bodies have been recovered," said Mustapha Abdelkebir, the mayor of Ben Guerdane, a town on the border with Libya. He added that identity papers recovered from the bodies indicated that most were Syrian and the dead included women and children. Search operations were suspended as night fell.

The mayor added that fishermen reported seeing many more bodies in the sea over the past days.

The International Organization for Migration warned that unrest in Libya could lead more people to risk their lives and take to unseaworthy boats to try to reach Italy from elsewhere.

Since the end of July, dozens of migrants in inadequate boats have died at sea, and many more have gone missing, presumed drowned.

Last week, Libyan rescuers recovered the bodies of about 170 people after a boat carrying migrants from sub-Saharan Africa sank, the coastguard said.

jm/mkg (AP, AFP)