Tunisia: 54 rescued migrants await transfer to detention centre

Waiting at Tunisia’s port of El Ketef in Ben Guerdane to be transferred to a detention centre, the 54 undocumented migrants of different African nationalities aged between 15 and 40 years old -- who were rescued Friday while attempting to cross into Europe from Libya on Thursday night, from a sinking boat off the coast of the town near Tunisian waters by the country’s navy.

Migrants from neighbouring Libya who have been shipwrecked in the central Mediterranean -- one of the most precarious migration routes, are regularly rescued by Tunisian agents.

Information communicated by the United Nations which has counted 1,400 deaths in the Mediterranean last year and over 700 between January 1 and May 21 so far this year.

Departures from Libya have risen sharply, with 11,000 departures from January to April 2021, 73% more than in the same period last year, due in particular to the "deterioration" of the situation for foreigners in the country, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).