Key Points
At least five Africans were dead and dozens believed missing after three boats attempting to carry migrants across the Mediterranean Sea sank in recent days off the coast of the Tunisian city of Sfax, the Tunisian coast guard said Thursday...
Bodies of five people, including one child, were recovered in the area in recent days, Sfax Prosecutor Faouzi Masmoudi said.. Masmoudi told The Associated Press that navy units had rescued 73 migrants after the three shipwrecks, but survivors accounts indicated as many as 47 others were missing..
Tunisian authorities say they stopped 13,000 migrants from making the crossing from Sfax in the first three months of this year alone.. Tunisia has seen growing numbers of migrants arriving via neighboring Libya and is facing a financial and political crisis of its own that is driving growing numbers of young Tunisians to seek a better life in Europe...
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