“The number of corpses exceeds the capacity,” said the official spokesman for the Sfax court, Fawzi al-Masmoudi, explaining that the number exceeded last Tuesday “200 corpses”, according to Agence France-Presse.
He pointed out that “the capacity of the Habib Bourguiba hospital does not exceed 40 or 50 bodies in the most extreme cases, which has created a health problem”.
Sfax is one of the areas where immigrants from Tunisia and from sub-Saharan African countries travel to the European coasts, especially Italy.
A week ago, local authorities in the governorate buried 30 bodies, and these operations continue almost daily, “to reduce the pressure on the hospital”, according to Al-Masmoudi.
He added: “Health and municipal authorities are working to bury them in cemeteries, after carrying out DNA analyzes and documenting them with figures, because there is a problem today, which is the floating of corpses in large numbers and their arrival at the beach, and we don’t know their identities or any incidents of drowning, and the numbers are increasing.”
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, an organization that monitors immigration in Tunisia, has counted no less than 220 dead and missing since the beginning of this year until April 24.
The governorates of Sfax and Mahdia record more than 78% of migrant departures.
The forum’s spokesperson, Ramadan bin Omar, said that “every year the problem of the treatment of corpses arises”, adding: “Local authorities have been committed to allocating a cemetery for the corpses of immigrants since last year. , but this was not done. , because they are still looking for a solution represented by the allocation of a cemetery for the corpses of immigrants.” under the pretext that they are not Muslims.
The Tunisian National Guard had earlier announced that it had rescued or intercepted “14,406 people, including 13,138 from sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest Tunisians”, during the first three months of the year.
Tunisia, which has parts of its coasts less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa, regularly records attempts by migrants to leave illegally for Italian shores.
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