Coastguards have retrieved 41 bodies from Tunisian waters, a national guard official said yesterday, raising the number of victims of migrant shipwrecks off the country's coast to 210 in 10 days.

The bodies were in a decomposed state, suggesting they had been in the water for several days, said Houssem Eddine Jebabli told Reuters.

The cumulative total of fatalities was unprecedented over such a short period, he said.

Numbers of boats carrying migrants - most from sub-Saharan Africa, Syria and Sudan - trying to reach Italy from Tunisia have risen sharply in recent months, in part due to a crackdown on departures by authorities in neighbouring Libya.

Tunisia is struggling to contain the surge, and some morgues are running out of spaceto bury the victims.