Tunisia calls on its navy to help find the missing people as the country grapples with an influx of migrants from other African countries and the Middle East, who use it as a departure point for Europe.
At least 23 migrants are missing after a boat set off from Tunisia in the direction of Italy, the North African country’s national guard has said.
It deployed floating units and informed the navy to help in the search for the missing people.
Tunisia has been grappling with an influx of people from other countries in Africa and the Middle East attempting to get to Europe on small boats.
It has replaced Libya as a main departure point for people trying to reach the West.
Tunisia has been cracking down on migrants as part of a deal worth more than €1bn (£855,870) with the EU, as the 27-member bloc tries to tackle the migrant crisis.
The issue has been politically divisive among the bloc’s member states ever since more than a million people arrived on European shores back in 2015.
The EU’s deal with Tunisia includes assistance to better police the border and prevent migrants without papers from reaching Europe.
The number of migrants reaching Italy in 2024 fell by two-thirds, compared with the same time last year, according to figures from Italy’s interior ministry on 8 May.
But critics have said the measures have been detrimental to the tens of thousands of migrants trapped in the country and tensions rising in Tunisia over migrant arrivals.
At the start of this month, several activists in the country were apprehended, accused of financial crimes stemming from providing aid to migrants.
More than 80 migrants were also arrested in Tunis after clashes with law enforcement during the clearance of encampments in the capital that authorities said were “disturbing the peace”, according to Radio Mosaïque.