Migrant boat capsizes off Tunisia: 2 dead, 12 missing, 1 rescued

A migrant boat capsized off Tunisia's southern coast on Saturday, leaving at least two people dead and 12 others missing, according to the country's national guard. One survivor was rescued.

Houssem Eddine Jebabli, a spokesperson for the national guard, said the two recovered bodies were taken to a hospital on the nearby island of Djerba. He added that around 15 people are believed to have been on board when the vessel departed between the cities of Zarzis and Ben Guerdane.

The boat set off early Thursday. A commercial ship found the lone survivor on Saturday, wearing a life jacket, based on testimony from the rescued individual. Following the discovery, authorities dispatched a helicopter and coast guard boats to search for additional survivors. The migrants are believed to have been heading toward Italy.

Zarzis has long served as a departure point for Tunisians and migrants from across Africa attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Europe. The area witnessed a similar tragedy in 2022, when a boat carrying 18 people vanished. That incident triggered weeks of protests, with families accusing authorities of failing to conduct proper searches and burying some recovered bodies without identification.

Migrant departures from Tunisia have declined sharply since a 2023 agreement between the European Union and Tunisia, which included funding and technical support for border control and coast guard training. The EU allocated 105 million euros ($121 million) in migration-related support to Tunisia that year. However, dangerous crossings from the southern coast persist, and families in the region have spent years searching for relatives lost at sea.

Rights groups have raised concerns about the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers in Tunisia since the EU deal, citing reports of collective expulsions, racial violence, arbitrary detention, and abuses against Black migrants. In July, Amnesty International stated that EU-backed border control efforts continued to fuel serious rights violations, trapping refugees and asylum seekers in a system offering neither protection nor a safe way out.