Tunis: Nine migrants from sub-Saharan African nations have recently had their bodies discovered in western Tunisia, close to the Algerian border, a judicial official reported on Wednesday.
Tunisia has long been a favourite stopping point for migrants making the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Europe. Its coastline is less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Authorities have launched an investigation that will include autopsies "to determine the cause of death," according to Riadh Nwiwi, a spokesman for the Kasserine court, after the bodies were found in the mountains close to Haidra, a town in the province of Kasserine.
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A support group for migrants, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, stated in a statement that "preliminary information" indicates that "cold, thirst, and fatigue" were to blame for the migrants' deaths.
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Nwiwi observed an increase in unauthorised migration across the Algeria-Tunisia border, particularly in the forested region close to Haidra.
In response to the "deadly migration policies of the European Union that have violated the right to movement of the people of the (Global) South," FTDES urged Tunisian authorities to take "humanitarian action."
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Numerous migrants have perished trying to reach Europe in a series of shipwrecks off Tunisia's coast since the beginning of the year. The organisation criticised "the Tunisian authorities' silence on the tragedies of migration and the policy of militarization of the borders.