98 Rescued İllegal Migrants Arrive İn Tunisia

Around 98 illegal migrants on Saturday arrived in the commercial port of the coastal southeastern town of Zarzis after spending one night in the sea because of bad weather conditions.



The migrants were rescued by Tunisian fishermen on Friday.



The 98 migrants arrived in the port on board of three Tunisian fishing boats, according to Riyad al-Hajj, an official of the Tunisian Red Crescent in Zarzis.



They included 42 migrants from Mali, 29 from Senegal, 14 from Gambia, six from Nigeria, two from the Ivory Coast and one from Cameroon, al-Hajj told The Anadolu Agency.



He added that the migrants also included one from Niger, one from Guinea-Bissau, one from Guinea-Conakry and one from Nigeria.



The Tunisian Red Crescent started offering food and covers for the migrants in preparation for moving them to a shelter.



The organization is expected to deport migrants coming from countries where there are no conflicts, whereas the United Nations refugee agency would take responsibility for others whose countries witness conflicts.



A week ago, Tunisia's navy rescued around 175 illegal migrants near Zarzis. Around 80 of these migrants have not been deported yet.



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