Bodies of 16 migrants recovered off Tunisia’s eastern coast

Samples person been taken to place the bodies of the migrants and refugees ‘due to the grade of decomposition’.

The bodies of 16 migrants and refugees person been recovered by Tunisia’s coastguard disconnected the country’s eastbound coast, the National Guard says, the latest migrant vessel catastrophe successful the Mediterranean.

“The bodies were recovered astatine the play and connected Monday … The victims person not been identified due to the fact that the bodies had decomposed,” a elder authoritative successful the National Guard, Houssem Eddine Jebabli, told Reuters quality agency.

Samples person been taken to place the bodies “due to the grade of decomposition”, said Farid Ben Jha, spokesperson for the Monastir and Mahdia governorates’ nationalist prosecution.

He said the bodies were recovered successful 3 antithetic areas successful Mahdia, 1 of Tunisia’s hotspots for irregular migration.

Tunisia and neighbouring Libya person go key departure points for migrants and refugees, often from different African countries, who hazard perilous Mediterranean Sea journeys successful the hopes of amended lives successful Europe.

Italy, whose Lampedusa land is lone 150km (90 miles) from Tunisia, is often their archetypal larboard of call. Every year, tens of thousands of radical effort to marque the crossing.

Last month, astatine slightest 15 Tunisian radical died, including 3 infants, and 10 others went missing aft their vessel sank disconnected the Tunisian seashore astatine Djerba arsenic they sought to transverse the Mediterranean to Europe. At slightest 29 others were rescued.

The bodies of 13 sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees were besides recovered successful the aforesaid country past month.

Since January 1 this year, astatine slightest 103 makeshift boats person capsized and 341 bodies person been recovered disconnected Tunisia’s coast, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

More than 1,300 radical died oregon disappeared past twelvemonth successful shipwrecks disconnected the North African country, according to the Tunisian FTDES rights group.

The International Organization for Migration has said much than 30,309 migrants and refugees have died successful the Mediterranean successful the past decade, including much than 3,000 past twelvemonth crossed the immense sea.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies