Ahmad 
1313 illegal migrants died or went missing off the coast of Tunisia in 2023, a record the country has never seen before, according to statistics prepared by the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
The official in the forum, Islam al-Gharbi, told AFP that “there are 1,313 victims and missing people on the Tunisian coasts, a number Tunisia has not seen since the beginning of this phenomenon,” noting that this number is equivalent to half of the victims and missing in the Mediterranean.
According to the IOM report, more than 2,498 people were killed or missing in the central Mediterranean during 2023, a 75% increase from the previous year.
Tunisia, along with Libya, is the main departure point for thousands of migrants seeking to reach Europe, and April recorded the highest number of victims and missing at 373, according to the forum.
Incidents of shipwrecks of boats carrying migrants off the Tunisian coast are repeated continuously, as the Tunisian Coast Guard announced the loss of 17 migrants, who set off a week ago in an illegal migration process from the coast of the governorate of Bizerte.
In a separate incident, 13 Sudanese migrants died and 27 went missing off the eastern coast of Tunisia after their boat sank, a judicial spokesman said.
In 2023, Tunisians represented the second nationality of illegal migrants arriving in Italy at 17,304, behind Guineans with 18,204, according to the Italian Interior Ministry.