Tunisian Foreign Minister Discusses Illegal Migration in Italy

Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome (AP)
Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome (AP)
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Tunisian Foreign Minister Discusses Illegal Migration in Italy

Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome (AP)
Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome (AP)

Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar has discussed the worsening illegal migration crisis with several Italian officials in Rome.

Thursday's visit comes after the Italian cabinet declared a state of emergency to deal with the increasing number of irregular migrants.

Data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior indicates that about 31,300 migrants have arrived since the beginning of 2023.

The Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Taiani, said in a statement carried by Aki news agency that Rome would bring 4,000 trained Tunisian workers.

Taiani added that the goal is to "promote legal migration," adding that combating human traffickers and illegal migration is "essential for Tunisia and Italy.

He asserted that the two countries are serious about their cooperation, and the agreements still in force will be implemented.

The Tunisian Foreign Ministry announced the visit, which came at the invitation of Talani, saying it would be an occasion to discuss ways to address illegal migration according to a comprehensive approach that serves the economic interest of both countries.

It also promotes legal and circular migration and investments and helps create job opportunities for the youth.

The Tunisian coasts are witnessing a record influx of migrants, compared to previous years, towards the Italian shores in search of better opportunities.

The most significant proportion of migrants hails from sub-Saharan African countries, according to data from the Tunisian Naval Forces.

More than 28,000 migrants arrived in Italy this year, according to Italian authorities, compared to 6,900 in the same period last year.

Rome says that Tunis has become the first transit country in the region to its territory this year, ahead of Libya.

Tunisia's coastguard confirmed that it recovered 25 bodies from a shipwreck off Tunisia.

The coastguard stated that a wooden boat packed with about 110 migrants sank on Wednesday off the coast of Sfax, and it recovered the bodies of 14 migrants, including six women from African countries and one Tunisian who was the captain of the boat.

The national guard official, Houssem Eddin Jebabli, announced earlier that the bodies of ten migrants from sub-Saharan African countries had been recovered.

The Maritime Security Units in the Sousse region rescued 14 Tunisians, including five females and nine children. The Maritime Security Units in the Monastir region apprehended six Tunisians preparing for an illegal migration trip to the northern shore of the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 441 migrants drowned trying to cross the central Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023, the most fatalities in three months since 2017.

According to the organization's Missing Migrants Project, half of those deaths were linked to delays in state-led rescue efforts and, in one case, the absence of any rescue mission.

"Delays in State-led rescues on the Central Mediterranean route were a factor in at least six incidents this year, leading to the deaths of at least 127 people. The complete absence of response to a seventh case claimed the lives of at least 73 migrants," said the organization.

IOM Director General, António Vitorino, said the "persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable."

According to IOM, the 441 deaths documented in the year's first three months are likely an undercount of lives lost in the Central Mediterranean.

Over the Easter weekend, 3,000 migrants reached Italy, bringing the total number of arrivals this year to 31,192 people.



Trump Sees ‘Progress’ on Gaza, Raising Hopes for Ceasefire

Israeli military vehicles maneuver inside the Gaza strip, as seen from Israel, June 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli military vehicles maneuver inside the Gaza strip, as seen from Israel, June 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Sees ‘Progress’ on Gaza, Raising Hopes for Ceasefire

Israeli military vehicles maneuver inside the Gaza strip, as seen from Israel, June 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli military vehicles maneuver inside the Gaza strip, as seen from Israel, June 25, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

"I think great progress is being made on Gaza," Trump told reporters, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him: "Gaza is very close."

He linked his optimism about imminent "very good news" to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas's backer Iran to end their 12-day war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian group Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had stepped up.

"Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours," Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.

He cautioned, however, that the group had "not yet received any new proposals" to end the war.

The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing "on the battlefield and via negotiations".

- 'No clear purpose' -

Israel sent forces into Gaza to root out Iran-linked Hamas and rescue hostages after the group's October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

In one of the war's deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza, taking its overall losses in the territory to 441.

The latest losses led to rare criticism of the war effort by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, a partner in Netanyahu's coalition government.

"I still don't understand why we are fighting there... Soldiers are getting killed all the time," lawmaker Moshe Gafni told a hearing in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.

The slain soldiers were from the Israeli combat engineering corps and were conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Khan Younis area when their vehicle was targeted with an explosive device, according to a military statement.

At the funeral of 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe in Rehovot south of Tel Aviv on Wednesday, inconsolable loved ones sobbed alongside young soldiers in uniform.

One former comrade who served with Ben-Moshe in Gaza told AFP of the strain the war was putting on soldiers, saying it was time for it to end.

"Me, I was unable to complete my military service. I was so bad off mentally that I was demobilized," said the former soldier, who gave his name only as Ariel.

"I have seen so many kids like me die. It's time for it to stop."

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of captives held in Gaza, endorsed the call to end the war.

"The war in Gaza has run its course, it is being conducted with no clear purpose and no concrete plan," the group said in a statement.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian gunmen during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Human rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with near-daily deaths of people queuing for food aid.

- Gunfire near aid site -

Gaza's civil defense agency said Wednesday that Israeli fire killed another 35 people, including six who were waiting for aid.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that a crowd of aid-seekers was hit by Israeli "bullets and tank shells" in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting rations.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was "not aware of any incident this morning with casualties in the central Gaza Strip".

The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the "weaponization of food" in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organizations there.

The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.

The GHF has denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.