Officials announced on Monday that sixteen migrants perished in shipwrecks off the shores of Tunisia and Western Sahara, as North Africa sees an increase in maritime crossings to Europe, news agency AFP reported. Much of the North African coast has become a key entry point for irregular migrants and asylum seekers, especially from other regions of the continent, embarking on risky journeys in sometimes decrepit boats in search of a better life.
According to local court spokesperson Faouzi Masmoudi, at least 11 migrants perished in a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia's second city of Sfax, revising a previous toll of four casualties.
Masmoudi stated that 44 individuals are still missing, while two others were recovered from the boat, which had 57 passengers on board, all of them were from Sub-Saharan African nations.
Survivors of the sinking near Tunisia's Kerkennah Islands in the Mediterranean Sea reported the improvised boat left from a beach north of the coastal city of Sfax during the weekend.
Masmoudi told AFP that coastguard personnel were looking for other survivors.
The distance between Sfax and the Italian island of Lampedusa is just around 130 kilometres (80 miles).
Meanwhile, Moroccan authorities reported that the corpses of five Senegalese migrants had been discovered, and that 189 people had been rescued when their boat collapsed off the coast of Western Sahara.
A military source informed Rabat's state-owned MAP news agency that the five dead and 11 migrants in "critical condition" were brought to a hospital in Dakhla, the disputed Western Sahara's second city on the Atlantic coast.
The boat set sail from "a country located south of the kingdom" and was its route to Spain's Canary Islands before being discovered near the coast of Guerguart, just north of Mauritania.
It was in a "difficult situation", the source was quoted by AFP in its report.
According to the source, the rescued migrants, including at least one lady, were carried to Dakhla on Sunday and handed over to Moroccan authorities.
Migrant fatalities have increased in recent years as thousands fled violence or crushing poverty and attempt to cross the Mediterranean in search of a better life in Europe.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, the central Mediterranean migrant crossing from North Africa to Europe is the world's worst, with over 20,000 deaths since 2014.
According to eyewitness testimony, at least 30 migrants are missing following two unrelated sinkings of boats that left Sfax last week near Lampedusa.
Authorities in Tunisia discovered the remains of 12 migrants who washed up north of Sfax between Friday and Sunday, but it was unclear whether they were linked to the shipwreck at the Kerkennah Islands, which are just across the water from Sfax.
According to Masmoudi, officials are looking into "whether there have been other shipwrecks in this area."
According to Tunisia's interior ministry, 901 fatalities have been found this year after maritime mishaps in the Mediterranean as of July 20, with 34,290 migrants rescued or stopped.
According to the report, the majority of them were from Sub-Saharan African nations.
According to the UN refugee agency, about 90,000 migrants have landed in Italy this year, with the majority of them arriving through Tunisia or nearby Libya.
