Failure of more than 20 illegal immigration attempts

Tunisian authorities have announced that they have foiled 22 illegal immigration attempts in Sfax (southeast), a hub for illegal crossings to Europe from the Tunisian coast.

The National Guard of Tunisia specifies in a press release that it foiled 22 migration attempts during the past weekend near the coast of Sfax and the center of the country, which was crowned by the rescue of a significant number of candidates for illegal emigration.

At the end of the interventions, the National Guard units arrested 10 wanted smugglers and seized the equipment used in those secret actions, the statement added.

Tunisia, some parts of whose coast is less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa, has recently seen an increase in attempts by migrants to go to Italy, especially from the city of Sfax, which is considered the epicenter of clandestine crossing attempts.

According to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, a non-governmental organization specializing in migration issues, more than 1,300 irregular migrants of various nationalities died and 1,793 disappeared off the coast of Tunisia during 2023 while trying to secretly reach Europe.