Tunisian coastguard finds more bodies from migrant shipwreck, toll rises to 33

TUNIS (Reuters) – The Tunisian coastguard has recovered eight more bodies from a migrant boat that sank off the country’s shores this week, raising the death toll to 33, the coastguard said on Friday.

A wooden boat packed with about 110 African migrants sank on Wednesday off the city of Sfax. Seventy-six people were rescued.

The costguard said four other decomposing bodies were also recovered, apparently from old shipwrecks.

Drowning accidents off Tunisia have increased in recent weeks, leaving dozens dead and missing, amid a sharp rise in migrant boats heading towards Italy from the Tunisian coast.

Tunisia has overtaken Libya as a main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in the hope of a better life in Europe.

The Tunisian National Guard said this month that more than 14,000 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, were intercepted or rescued in the first three months of the year while trying to cross to Europe, five times more than figures recorded in the same period last year.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Angus MacSwan)