Tunisia’s Coast Guard recovered the bodies of 14 African migrants who drowned when their boat carrying more than 80 people sank after setting off for Europe from neighboring Libya, the Tunisian Red Crescent said.
Tunisian fishermen rescued four people but one later died in hospital, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Thursday. The others on the overcrowded boat were feared drowned.
Libya’s west coast is a main departure point for African migrants hoping to reach Europe, though numbers have dropped due to an Italian-led effort to disrupt smuggling networks and support the Libyan Coast Guard.
