TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) – Four pregnant women were among 20 migrants whose bodies were found off the coast of Tunisia after the wreck of their smuggler boat, Tunisian authorities said on Friday, as search efforts continued for 13 other people considered missing.
Nineteen of the 20 migrants who died in Thursday’s sinking were women, according to Mourad Torki, the court spokesman for the Sfax region in central Tunisia.
Coast guard officials and local fishermen recovered the bodies and brought them to the coast, and transferred them in white bags to a nearby hospital, where autopsies were performed.
Four migrants were rescued, Torki said: one remained under medical supervision on Friday and another fled the hospital.
The boat, overloaded and in poor condition, was carrying 37 people – three Tunisians and others from sub-Saharan Africa, Torki said. Coast guard boats and navy divers were looking for the 13 missing, but found no new bodies or survivors on Friday amid strong winds and high waves in the area.
Tunisian authorities say they have intercepted several migrant smuggling boats recently, but that the number of attempts has increased, especially between the Sfax region and the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The migrant smuggling boats often depart from the coast of Tunisia and neighboring Libya, transporting people from across Africa, including an increasing number of Tunisians fleeing prolonged economic difficulties in their country.