Twenty-two would-be immigrants drowned and 42 were missing after a boat that was to have carried them across the Mediterranean broke up and sank off the Tunisian coast at the weekend, according to the latest official figure on Monday.
The boat, which was carrying 75 people in all, sank overnight in the early hours of Sunday, the Tunisian navy said, in a statement carried by the official TAP news agency. The vessel was attempting to sail to Italy.