BFF-49 Tunisia migrant death toll rises to at least 35: defence ministry

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Tunisia migrant death toll rises to at least 35: defence ministry

TUNIS, June 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The bodies of 35 migrants have been
recovered off Tunisia’s southern coast, the country’s defence ministry said
Sunday, revising upwards an earlier toll.

As of 1300 local time (1200 GMT), “35 bodies were recovered and 68
migrants rescued,” a spokesman for the defence ministry told AFP.

The interior ministry had earlier said the bodies of 11 migrants had been
recovered and 67 people rescued off the coast of Sfax province after the navy
and national guard responded to a distress call from a boat that was “about
to sink.”

BSS/AFP/FI/ 1928 hrs