TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) – Four pregnant women were among 20 migrants whose bodies were found off the coast of Tunisia after their smuggling boat sank, Tunisian authorities said Friday, as search efforts continued for 13 others who were considered missing.
Mourad Torki, the court spokesman for the Sfax region of central Tunisia, said 19 of the 20 were migrants who died in Thursday’s sinking.
Coastguard officials and local fishermen collected the bodies and took them to shore, and took them in white body bags to a nearby hospital where autopsies were performed.
Four migrants were rescued, Torki said: One remained under medical supervision on Friday and another fled the hospital.
The boat, overloaded and in poor condition, was carrying 37 people – three Tunisians and others from sub-Saharan Africa, Torki said. Coastguard boats and navy divers searched for the 13 missing but found no new bodies or survivors on Friday, amid high winds and high waves in the area.
Tunisian authorities say they recently intercepted several migrant smuggling boats, but the number of attempts is increasing, particularly between the Sfax region and the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Migrant smuggling boats often depart from the coast of Tunisia and neighboring Libya, transporting people from all over Africa, including a growing number of Tunisians fleeing protracted economic difficulties in their country.