Tunisia: Search Continues for Missing After Migrant Boat Sinking Sparks Protests

Volunteers in Tunisia have resumed their search for two people still missing after a migrant boat carrying 15 people sank off the country's southeastern coast, while the city of Ben Guerdane was shaken by violent protests sparked by the tragedy.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed volunteers in the city of Zarzis heading out to sea on fishing boats on Monday to search for the missing.

The migrant boat, believed to be heading to Italy, sank late on Friday after departing from a location between Zarzis and Ben Guerdane with 15 people, most of them young men. The boat went down about 14 nautical miles (26 km) off the coast of Zarzis.

According to Tunisian media, only one person survived, drifting at sea for about 48 hours before being rescued by a commercial vessel.

Tunisia's National Guard said the bodies of 12 people had been recovered by Sunday.

The deaths have sparked an outpouring of grief and anger, leading to violent protests in Ben Guerdane on Sunday night. According to the National Guard, about 14 of the people on the boat were from Ben Guerdane, and one was from Zarzis.

Protesters burned tires and blocked roads, while police responded with tear gas to disperse the crowds. Demonstrators demanded better living conditions and economic development, saying that a lack of opportunities and years of marginalization are pushing young people to undertake dangerous crossings to Europe in search of a better life.

Mostafa Abdelkebir, head of the Tunisian Human Rights Observatory, said the boat carried seven members of the same family. He told Reuters on Monday that a hospital in Ben Guerdane had received at least 19 bodies of migrants recovered from the sea over the past two days.

It remains unclear whether all the bodies were from the sunken boat. Abdelkebir told Reuters that genetic testing is underway to identify the bodies and determine the number of people who were on board.

Some in Tunisia have called for a period of national mourning to honor the victims.

Imad Oulad Jibril, a lawmaker, called it on Sunday a “tragedy of a nation witnessing its youth flee the country's hardships only to be swallowed by the sea.”

The opposition Democratic Bloc party tied the sinking to Tunisia's economic difficulties, stating: “When crossing the sea becomes easier than living in Tunisia, we must ask: Who is at fault?”

Tunisia has seen similar tragedies in recent years, including the Kerkennah disaster, in which more than 100 people died or went missing in 2018 after a migrant boat sank. That incident led to the dismissal of the then-interior minister. In Zarzis in 2022, at least 18 people died after another migrant boat sank, sparking protests that lasted for weeks.

Tunisia's southeastern coast is just 145 km (90 miles) from Italy's Lampedusa island.

The Central Mediterranean is considered the world's deadliest migration route, according to the International Organization for Migration, which says at least 821 migrants have died or gone missing on this route so far this year – more than double the figure for the same period last year.

Across the wider Mediterranean region, at least 1,065 people have died or gone missing, according to the group.