Five sub-Saharan migrants drowned on Wednesday and 28 others are missing after their boat sank off the coast of Tunisia, a human rights group said.
“The bodies of five migrants have been found and five others have been rescued, but 28 are still missing,” said Romdhane Ben Amor of the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES).
He said the boat sank “because it was overloaded with 38 passengers, mostly from Ivory Coast”.
The boat had left the coastal region of Sfax to try to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The shipwreck is the latest such tragedy in the central Mediterranean, known as the world’s deadliest migration route.
It comes a month after Tunisian President Kais Saied made a inflammatory speech accusing migrants from sub-Saharan Africa of “conspiring” against Tunisia and behind a crime wave.
His comments sparked violence against black migrants and landlords, who feared fines, and evicted hundreds of people who are now camping on the streets of Tunis.
It is estimated that around 21,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are staying in Tunisia, a country of 12 million people.