News Center- Tunisia is one of the main north African departure points for thousands of irregular migrants who risk their lives every year in the hopes of having better lives in Europe.

“1,313 people died or disappeared off the Tunisian coast, a figure never reached in Tunisia. The toll was equivalent to approximately half of the deaths and missing in the Mediterranean in 2023,” said Islem Ghaarbi, a migration expert at the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights.

2,498 people died or went missing while trying to cross the central Mediterranean in 2023, a 75-percent increase compared to the previous year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

373 people died or went missing trying to reach Europe from Tunisia in April 2023, according to the Tunisian rights group.

Two days ago, Tunisia's coast guard announced that 17 Tunisian migrants went missing a week after embarking from a Mediterranean port city in the country's north.