At least 12 Tunisian migrants died when their boat headed for Europe sank off the coast of Libya, hospital sources and local media said Friday. Media reports said the trawler carrying 28 migrants, mostly young adults from the impoverished Ben Guerdane region of Tunisia, sank last Sunday off the Libyan city of Sabratha.
A local Red Crescent official, Mongi Slim, said there were only 11 known survivors, while Ben Guerdane has received 12 bodies with more expected to follow. More than 10,000 migrants bound for Europe, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, have perished or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.