1,300 dead or missing off Tunisia in 2023: NGO

More than 1,300 irregular migrants died at sea or went missing trying to reach Europe from Tunisia last year, a Tunisian rights group said yesterday.

Islem Ghaarbi, a migration expert at the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights, told a press conference that "1,313 people died or disappeared off the Tunisian coast, a figure never reached in Tunisia".

Ghaarbi said at least two thirds came from sub-Saharan Africa, adding that the toll was "equivalent to approximately half of the deaths and missing in the Mediterranean" in 2023.