The Italian Coast Guard reported this Wednesday the visual finding of four more lifeless bodies off the coast of Tunisia, following the recent shipwreck of a boat carrying Tunisian migrants attempting to reach European territory by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
In an official note, the agency stated that "the National Operations Center of the Italian Coast Guard received a report on Tuesday from a vessel belonging to a non-governmental organization about three corpses in an advanced state of decomposition off the Tunisian coast, approximately 36 nautical miles (about 66.7 kilometers) from Zarzis, in an area of responsibility for search and rescue by Libya and Tunisia."
It also added that "on the same day, an aircraft operated by a non-governmental organization reported another sighting, it is still unknown if it is related to the first, about the presence of a corpse, also in an advanced state of decomposition, in the same maritime area."
The Coast Guard specified that all this information has already been sent to the "maritime rescue coordination centers" of Tunisia, Libya, and Malta, and emphasized that, for the moment, there is no official confirmation that the bodies have been recovered.
The statement was released two days after Tunisian authorities reported the location of twelve corpses following the sinking of the vessel off the province of Zarzis, highlighting that search and rescue operations remain active in the area.
According to figures published on the website of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 1,700 people have lost their lives so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, and more than 26,700 deaths have been recorded since 2014 on the central Mediterranean route, considered the deadliest.