The Tunisian National Guard said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page that “a joint team between the first and second divisions of the information and research department and the naval orientation division in Sfax succeeded in arrest the organizer of the transit operations, who issued 24 inspection leaflets and 79 years in prison.”
The arrested person is found guilty of “matters related to participating in a training course with the intention of surreptitiously crossing the maritime border, and committing the crime of human trafficking”.
He also participated in the organization of “a crossing operation from the coast of the city of Chebba (east), during which 20 Tunisians perished after the sinking of their boat”, according to the press release.
Parts of the Tunisian coast are within 150 km of the Italian island of Lampedusa, and attempts to migrate to the Italian coast are regularly recorded, with the majority of participants coming from sub-Saharan Africa.
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 are Tunisians, during the first three months of the year”.
This number is almost five times higher than what was recorded during the same period in 2022.
More than 45,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the start of the year, according to the Italian Interior Ministry, almost four times the number recorded at the same time last year.
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