The coastal city of Sfax in Tunisia is grappling with a crisis; its main hospital’s morgue is no longer able to accommodate the bodies of migrants who perished while attempting to cross the Mediterranean. Tunisian health authorities reported that the mortuary at the Habib Bourguiba University Hospital reached unprecedented levels this week in terms of the number of bodies it’s holding.
According to Hatem Al-Sharif, the regional health director of Sfax, the morgue, at times, housed as many as 120 bodies, despite having a maximum capacity for only 40. The daily inflow of bodies, retrieved from the sea or washed ashore, has been unrelenting.
This grim statistic underscores a broader tragedy unfolding in the Mediterranean. As the pace and frequency of undocumented migration attempts to Italian shores have surged in recent weeks, so too has the number of casualties. Most of the migrant-laden boats embark from Sfax’s southern coast, which has become a principal departure point for undocumented migrants.
Last month, Tunisia’s Ministry of the Interior reported the retrieval of 901 bodies of drowned migrants off its coasts since the beginning of the year. The North African nation has witnessed an unprecedented influx of migrants and recurrent maritime disasters involving boats primarily from Sub-Saharan Africa attempting to reach Italy.
Interestingly, Tunisia has effectively replaced Libya as the main departure point in the region for those fleeing poverty and conflict from Africa and the Middle East, seeking a better life in Europe.
United Nations figures paint a distressing picture: over 1,800 individuals have perished since January while attempting to traverse the perilous Mediterranean waters—considered the world’s most dangerous migration route. This figure is nearly double the number recorded the previous year.
