This is the second massive rescue carried out by the Tunisian authorities since the beginning of the summer.
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Tunisian maritime authorities rescued 255 migrants trying to flee to Italy overnight from Friday to Saturday August, the National Guard announced on Sunday (August 7th). Among those rescued, 170 came from sub-Saharan African countries, the others were Tunisians, details the press release published on Facebook.
The seventeen attempts started from “the east coast of Tunisia” and were destined for the Italian coasts, according to National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli. An unspecified sum of money was seized by authorities, he said.
As of Friday, the national guard had arrested “in a preventive operation” five individuals who “were preparing to carry out an illegal immigration operation from the coast of the province of Sousse, in the east of the country”added the spokesman of the national guard.
In spring and summer, there are more attempts at clandestine emigration by Tunisians and other sub-Saharan African countries to Europe. 455 migrants had already been rescued in several operations off the north, east and south coasts of the country, the Tunisian coastguard announced on Monday (July 18th).
Italy is one of the main entry points into Europe for migrants from North Africa, arriving mainly from Tunisia and Libya, two countries from which departures have started to rise sharply again in the last two years. . Between January 1 and July 22, 2022, a total of 34,000 people arrived by sea in Italy, according to the Italian Interior Ministry.