Migrants find shelter at a supermarket parking lot on Thursday on the Greek island of Lesbos before police begin an operation to rehouse thousands of homeless migrants at a new site. The move follows the destruction of their camp by fire a week ago. Photo: AFP

At least 11 migrants from Africa died when their boat sank off Tunisia on Sunday, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a Tunisian security official said.

Tunisia's coast guard recovered the bodies of eight women and three children off the coast near Sfax late on Sunday, he said.

According to initial estimates, 30 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were on board the vessel, Jebabli said, adding that a search was underway for those missing.

He did not indicate where they had departed from.

The number of would-be migrants attempting to cross to Europe from Tunisia sharply from a peak in 2011.

But it began rising again in 2017, driven partly by economic woes and inequality in the North African country, almost a decade after a revolution that many hoped would bring change.

In 2019, about 90 African migrants drowned after their boat capsized enroute to Europe from Libya, one of the worst such accidents in Tunisian waters.

The interior ministry said Sunday it had stopped 32 attempts to cross the Mediterranean and arrested 262 people between the start of 2020 and mid-September. Two people were from sub-Saharan Africa.

Over the same period, 8,581 people were intercepted while trying to reach Europe by sea from Tunisia, the ministry said. They included 2,104 foreigners.

Reuters - AFP