37 migrants are still missing after their boat capsized between Tunisia and the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The survivors, all from sub-Saharan Africa, were saved from the shipwreck by another vessel, according to the United Nations agency, and they arrived on Lampedusa late on Thursday.
The survivors told the IOM that they had 46 people on board when they departed from the Tunisian port of Sfax in search of Italy, but their boat overturned due to heavy winds.
Five of their fellow travelers, including seven women and a child, were reportedly picked up by another boat, but 37 people remain missing and are presumed dead, according to an IOM official in Italy.
In a previous description of the same occurrence, the UN High Commission for Refugees stated that 40 people rather than 37—were thought to be missing.
After Tunisia’s crackdown on migrants from sub-Saharan Africa residing in the country illegally and accusations of racial attacks amid an economic crisis, there has been a surge in migration across the Mediterranean this year.
Three boats capsized off the coast of Tunisia, leaving at least 12 African migrants missing and three dead, according to a judicial official on Thursday. The nation’s coastguard managed to save 152 people.
If any of these three boats had the four survivors who told the IOM their tale, it was not immediately obvious.