About 800 Migrants Drowned off Tunisia's Coast This Year

Migrants gather near Ras Ajdir to demand that authorities send medicine and food aid. (EPA)
Migrants gather near Ras Ajdir to demand that authorities send medicine and food aid. (EPA)
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About 800 Migrants Drowned off Tunisia's Coast This Year

Migrants gather near Ras Ajdir to demand that authorities send medicine and food aid. (EPA)
Migrants gather near Ras Ajdir to demand that authorities send medicine and food aid. (EPA)

About 800 migrants have drowned off Tunisia's coast this year as they tried to reach Europe by boat, National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Jebabli said that 789 bodies of migrants were recovered from the sea, including 102 Tunisians, other foreigners, and unidentified people.

He said that between January 1 to June 20, 34,290 migrants were intercepted and rescued, including 30,587 foreigners, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 9,217 people who were intercepted or retrieved during the same period in 2022.

The Coast Guard carried out 1,310 operations in the first six months, more than double the number of missions last year.

Tunisia, with some coasts less than 150 km from Italy's Lampedusa Island, has become a significant gateway for irregular migrants and asylum-seekers, often from sub-Saharan Africa.

Italian authorities say more than 80,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean and reached the Italian coast since the beginning of the year, compared to 33,000 last year during the same period, most of them from the Tunisian and Libyan coasts.

Tunisian Interior Minister Kamal Feki said Wednesday that the Tunisian Coast Guard had recovered 901 bodies by July 20 following maritime accidents in the Mediterranean Sea.

Tunisia has replaced Libya as the main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East searching for a better life in Europe.

Feki told the Parliament that among the 901 bodies found, 36 were Tunisians, and 267 were foreign immigrants, while the identity of the rest is unknown.

Most of the boats carrying migrants depart from Sfax. Thousands of migrants without identity papers flocked to the coastal city, especially in the past few months, to travel to Europe in boats run by smugglers, leading to an unprecedented migration crisis in Tunisia.

Official data showed that about 75,065 migrants arrived in Italy by boat until July 14, compared to 31,920 in the same period last year. More than half of them left from Tunisia.

Last week, the European Union and Tunisia signed a memorandum of understanding for a "strategic and comprehensive partnership" on illegal migration, economic development, and renewable energy.

Hundreds of African migrants, including pregnant women and children, are still abandoned in Ras Ajdir between Libya and Tunisia after Tunisian authorities sent them there, according to testimonies collected by AFP.

About 140 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa said they had been in the area without water or food for three weeks and set up a transit camp 30 meters from the Libyan Ras Ajdir border checkpoint.

Following clashes that killed a Tunisian citizen earlier in July, dozens of African migrants were expelled from Sfax and transferred to border areas with Libya and Algeria.

Over the past ten days, Libyan border guards have taken in hundreds of migrants wandering in the desert south of Ras Ajdir, where at least five bodies were found.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tunisian police expelled up to 1,200 African migrants in July to remote desert areas along Tunisia's borders with Libya and Algeria.

On July 10, the Tunisian Red Crescent relocated 600 on the Libyan side and hundreds on the Algerian side to shelters.



Syria Reaches Deal to Integrate SDF within State Institutions, Presidency Says

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Syria Reaches Deal to Integrate SDF within State Institutions, Presidency Says

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

The Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of Syria's oil-rich northeast, has signed a deal agreeing to integrate into Syria's new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday.

The deal, which included a complete cessation of hostilities, was signed by interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the SDF's commander, Mazloum Abdi.

Under the deal, whose text was posted online by the presidency, all civilian and military institutions in northeast Syria will be integrated within the state, which will thus take over control of borders, airports and oil and gas fields.

The SDF agrees to support the government in combating remnants of deposed president Bashar al-Assad's regime, and any threats to Syria's security and unity.

Since Assad was overthrown by Sharaa's Islamist forces in December, groups backed by Türkiye, one of Sharaa's main supporters, have clashed with the SDF, the main ally in a US coalition against ISIS militants in Syria.

The SDF is spearheaded by the YPG militia, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.

Türkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as terrorist groups, and Sharaa's new Damascus administration had been pressing the SDF to merge into newly-minted state security forces.

Abdi had previously expressed a willingness for his forces to be part of the new defense ministry, but said they should join as a bloc rather than individuals, an idea that was rejected by the new government.

The US and Türkiye’s Western allies list the PKK as a terrorist group, but not the YPG or the SDF.