TUNIS, Tunisia – A devastating maritime disaster has unfolded off the southern coast of Tunisia, where an overloaded vessel carrying irregular migrants capsized, claiming at least two lives and leaving a dozen more unaccounted for, Tunisia’s National Guard confirmed in a statement released Saturday. Only one survivor has been pulled from the Mediterranean Sea alive so far.
National Guard spokesperson Houssem Eddine Jebabli confirmed to Tunisia’s state-run news agency TAP that recovery teams have retrieved two bodies from the wreckage, which have since been transported to a medical facility on the nearby tourist island of Djerba. Speaking to local national broadcaster Mosaique FM, Jebabli noted that initial investigations suggest roughly 15 migrants were on board the small vessel when it departed from the coastal stretch between the southern Tunisian cities of Zarzis and Ben Guerdane.
According to Mosaique FM’s reporting, which draws on testimony from the lone survivor, the boat set sail early Thursday. The survivor, found floating in a life jacket by a passing commercial vessel on Saturday, was able to alert authorities to the disaster, prompting an immediate search and rescue operation. An Associated Press photojournalist on site confirms that both a military helicopter and multiple coast guard vessels have been deployed to the incident area to locate additional survivors. Authorities say all on board were attempting the dangerous crossing to reach Italy, one of the most common entry points for migrants seeking to enter the European Union.
Zarzis has for decades served as a major departure hub for migrants from Tunisia and across the African continent who hope to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean. The coastal city already bears the scars of repeated migration tragedies: in 2022, another boat carrying 18 people went missing off its shores, sparking widespread weeks-long protests. Local families of the missing accused Tunisian authorities of conducting inadequate search efforts, and criticized officials for burying several recovered remains without proper identification or notifying next of kin.
The latest disaster comes amid a shifting policy landscape for migration in the region. Irregular departures from Tunisia have dropped dramatically since the Tunisian government signed a wide-ranging migration agreement with the European Union in 2023. That deal included hundreds of millions of euros in EU funding and specialized technical support to strengthen Tunisia’s border control operations and train coast guard personnel, all aimed at curbing irregular migration and cracking down on human trafficking networks operating across the Mediterranean. The EU alone allocated 105 million euros ($121 million) in migration-specific assistance to Tunisia in 2023.
While overall departure numbers have fallen, the fatal incident confirms that dangerous, unregulated crossings from Tunisia’s southern coast have not stopped. For local communities in Zarzis and surrounding areas, the ongoing risk has left hundreds of families in perpetual limbo, waiting for news of relatives who disappeared attempting the crossing over the years.
Beyond the persistent danger of sea crossings, the 2023 EU-Tunisia migration deal has drawn sharp criticism from global human rights organizations, which have raised urgent alarms over the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers held in Tunisia. Groups have documented widespread allegations of serious abuses, including mass collective expulsions, targeted racial violence, arbitrary detention, and systemic mistreatment of Black African migrants. In a report released last July, Amnesty International warned that EU funding for Tunisian border control is directly contributing to these ongoing serious human rights violations, saying that refugees and asylum seekers are “deliberately trapped in a system that offers neither protection nor a safe way out.”