The death toll from a migrant boat that sank off the coast of Tunisia has risen to 12, the Tunisian national guard announced on Sunday, August 23, as search teams continued looking for two people still unaccounted for.
The boat, carrying 15 Tunisian migrants, sank overnight between Friday and Saturday off Zarzis in southeastern Tunisia. Only one person was rescued, hours later, by a passing commercial vessel.
The national guard said search operations allowed three bodies to be recovered on Saturday and nine more on Sunday, bringing the total to 12, and added that efforts were continuing to locate the remaining two people on board. An earlier official toll had put the number of bodies recovered at 11.
Protests in Ben Gardane
On Saturday night, residents of Ben Gardane, a marginalized town near the border with Libya, protested after news of the sinking broke. Fourteen of the 15 migrants came from Ben Gardane, while the 15th was from Zarzis. Demonstrators blocked roads and set fire to car tyres.
A key departure point for migrants
Tunisia, whose coastline lies only around 145 kilometers from the Italian island of Lampedusa, has become a major departure point for migrants attempting the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean in the hope of reaching Europe.
The central Mediterranean is the deadliest migration route in the world, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Earlier this month, the IOM reported that the number of migrant deaths in the central Mediterranean more than doubled in the first four months of 2026 compared with the same period last year. At least 914 migrants have died or been declared missing in that stretch of sea this year, according to the agency, which is part of the United Nations system.
EU funding agreement
In 2023, Tunisia signed an agreement with the European Union providing for 255 million euros in funding, with almost half of that amount earmarked for combating irregular migration.
The agreement, backed mainly by Italy's far-right government, aimed to strengthen Tunis's ability to prevent boats carrying migrants from leaving its shores.
