Tunisia: survivors of boat sank share heart-wrenching account

Heart-wrenching accounts from survivors of a boat sank that killed scores of migrants off Tunisia’s coastal of Zarzis .

The migrants were headed to Italy when the boat they were travelling on sunk in the Mediterranean on the night of Thursday May 9 to Friday May 10, killing 65 people.

Ahmed Bilal is a survivor and citizen from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh .

“People were dying one after the other, every minute people were going under (drowning). Every minute one (a person) was going, and we lost them. I have lost my two brothers. One was my cousin. One was my brother in law, in front of my eyes”, Bilal said

Ahmed Bilal, a survivor and citizen from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh said they had to sell properties to make the perilous journey.

“We paid in Zouara, 10.000 Libyan dinars(6.400€) to go to Italy. We sold our house. We sold our property in Bangladesh, to get Italy”, Bilal added.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in a statement on Friday said 16 people were pulled from the water after the boat sank.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, the boat took off to sea from neighboring Libya.

An IOM official told the Associated Press that those aboard the boat included a Bangladeshi and Moroccan nationals among others.