At least 23 migrants die off Tunisian coast

At least 23 migrants drowned in an accident off the coast of Tunisia on June 1. The people had tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya in the direction of Italy. 70 people were picked up by the Tunisian Navy, according to the Tunisian Red Crescent.

According to the Red Crescent, there were over ninety people on the boat. Another 39 migrants were picked up by another sinking boat near Sfax, 270 kilometers south of Tunisia. At least 120 people have died off the Tunisian coast in recent weeks, according to official figures. A total of 773 people have drowned in the Mediterranean this year, according to the UN organization IOM. The real number is far higher.

UN: “Deaths are the result of concrete political decisions of the EU”

Just recently, the UN assigned responsibility for the deaths in the Mediterranean to the EU and Libya in its Lethal Disregard report. The UN human rights office accuses the EU and Libya of failing to prioritize the lives, safety and human rights of people trying to cross from Africa to Europe. The 37-page report notes that cases of disregard for the protection of human rights are not tragic anomalies, but rather consequences of “concrete policy decisions and practices by the Libyan authorities, European Union member states and institutions, and other actors.”