Bodies of 13 migrants found off Tunisia coast 

Tunisian authorities on Monday recovered the bodies of 13 migrants, a day after their boat sank off the country’s coast. Nine other persons are still missing, the spokesman for the courts of Sfax said.

Seven migrants were also rescued off the coast of Sfax, including five men and two women.

A spokesman for the courts of Sfax, Judge Mourad Al-Turki said that authorities recovered 13 bodies on Monday. He added that, according to survivor accounts, the boat had 29 people on board, including two Tunisians.

The body of a six-month-old baby was recovered, while the search for survivors is ongoing, Al-Turki said.

In a statement, the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior announced that it had thwarted 32 attempts to cross the maritime borders illegally via the country’s northern, eastern, southern, and central coasts between Saturday night and Sunday morning, and arrested 262 people aged between 15 and 44.

READ: 80 Tunisia migrants arrive on Italy’s Lampedusa island

Statistics released by the Interior Ministry show that 8,851 people tried to cross the Tunisian waters towards the European coasts, including 2,104 foreigners, since the beginning of this year until mid-September.