Tunisian naval forces picked up 178 migrants from the Mediterranean on Sunday after the boats transporting them broke down on the crossing from Libya to Europe, a Tunisian Defense Ministry spokesperson said. The bodies of two other migrants were also recovered during three rescue operations off Tunisia’s southern coast.
The defense spokesperson, Mohamed Zekri, said the migrants' boats had been at risk of sinking. An oil rig in the area sounded the alarm. The migrants, who had left from the Libyan port of Zuwara on Friday night, were from Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Syria, and Tunisia, according to Tunisian authorities.
It was the second large-scale rescue in the area in 48 hours. On Thursday, The Tunisian navy rescued 267 migrants who were also trying to reach Italy and had set off from Libya, the UN migration agency IOM said. Almost all were Bangladeshi nationals.
