Tunisian coast guards have retrieved two bodies of illegal immigrants, whose boat bound for Italy sank off the country’s southeastern coast, the Tunisian National Guard said on Saturday in a statement.
The boat, carrying 20 Tunisian nationals, sank off the coast of Gabes province at Saturday dawn when trying to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa, said the statement.
The two victims were identified as an infant and a 20-year-old young man, according to the statement.
Thirteen of the illegal immigrants were rescued, the statement said, adding that the search for the missing is underway.
It is not the first time that Tunisia has recovered the corpses of illegal immigrants who drowned in attempts to cross from the Tunisian coasts into Italy.
The island of Lampedusa, the first stop usually chosen by illegal immigrants for their sea voyage toward Italy, is only about 80 km from the Tunisian coasts.
Source: Xinhua
