Tunisia rescues 124 migrants after boat breaks down
Tunisia's coast guard has rescued 124 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea close to neighboring Libya, said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Mongi Slim, an official at the ICRC, said the migrants, all Africans, had been "attempting to illegally reach the Italian island of Lampedusa before they were rescued" and taken to the southern Tunisian port of Ben Guerdane.
All of the migrants rescued were stranded at sea for three days. They had taken off from the Libyan coast onboard a large inflatable vessel that later broke down, Slim told AFP on Sunday.
Among the migrants were 109 Nigerians, including 19 women, seven Ghanaians, including four women, four Ethiopians, a couple from Cameroon, and two Congolese.
For years now, Tunisia has been at the forefront of rescue efforts amid an overflow of mainly African migrants bound for Europe on small and unsafe boats that run into trouble most of the time.
In June, Tunisian forces rescued 356 migrants, who had left Libya in search of refuge on makeshift vessels.
Over 108,000 asylum seekers and other migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year in a bid to get into Europe.
Due to the growing political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, people smugglers have taken advantage of the situation and stepped up their lucrative smuggling business.
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