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Boat Sinks Toward Italy
At least 13 Tunisians were reported missing after a migrant boat capsized off the Tunisian coast while en route to Italy, with two people rescued and one survivor in critical condition, according to Mostafa Abdelkebir of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights.
“at least 13 Tunisian nationals are missing after a migrant boat capsized”
Abdelkebir told Reuters that the boat departed early Thursday from Tunisian shores and carried a group of young men, most of whom hail from the Ben Gardane area in the southeast of the country.
The incident was described as occurring on a central Mediterranean route that the International Organization for Migration classifies as the world's most dangerous sea crossing, and Reuters cited IOM figures showing 821 migrants died or went missing along that route in the first four months of 2026.
Reuters also cited IOM figures saying the number of deaths and missing persons while crossing the central Mediterranean in 2025 reached at least 1,340 people.
EU Deal Under Fire
The sinking comes as Tunisia’s migration role has been shaped by European-backed controls, with Al Jazeera saying the number of people attempting the crossing from Tunisia has declined sharply in the last two years amid a crackdown and tighter maritime controls supported by the European Union.
Al Jazeera reported that in July, 46 rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, issued a joint statement criticising the EU’s 2023 deal with Tunisia to curb migration.
In that statement, the groups said the deal has led to “reckless and violent interceptions at sea” of refugees and “collective and summary expulsions,” and they called on the EU to suspend funding for migration and border-control activities involving Tunisian security forces.
Al Jazeera also said the International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 35,000 people have gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.
Search, Missing, and Risk
After the capsizing, Reuters said two people survived and one was in critical health, while other reporting described survivors telling rescuers they had been stranded at sea for hours after their vessel overturned.
“No additional details were immediately available about the causes of the sinking”
The Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights head, Mostafa Abdelkebir, said the second survivor was in critical condition, and he told Reuters the boat set off early Thursday.
Reuters also reported that no additional details were immediately available about the causes of the sinking or whether search operations for the missing are ongoing, leaving the fate of the missing unresolved.
In parallel, the International Organization for Migration figures cited by Reuters warned that a 46 percent drop in arrivals along the route to 8,577 people did not mean migration journeys had become safer.