TUNISIA, Tunisia (AP) – Four pregnant women were among 20 migrants whose bodies were found off the coast of Tunisia after their smuggled ship sank, Tunisian authorities said on Friday as efforts continued. search for 13 people believed to be missing.
Nineteen of the 20 migrants who died in the sinking on Thursday were women, according to Mourad Torki, the judicial spokesman for the Sfax region in central Tunisia.
Coast guards and local fishermen recovered the bodies and took them to shore and transported them in white bags to a nearby hospital where autopsies were performed.
Four migrants were rescued, according to Torki: 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 searched for the 13 missing, but on Friday they found no bodies or survivors, amid strong winds and high waves in the area.
Tunisian authorities say they have intercepted several migrant smuggling vessels recently, but that the number of attempts has been growing, especially between the Sfax region and the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Migrant smuggling vessels often leave the coast of Tunisia and neighboring Libya carrying people from all over Africa, including a growing number of Tunisians fleeing prolonged economic hardship in their country.