TUNIS (Reuters) – Dozens of African migrants are feared to have drowned after their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia after setting of for Europe from Libya, a government source and the Tunisian Red Crescent said on Thursday.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement more than 80 were feared drowned.
Tunisian fishermen rescued four people but one later died in hospital, the UNHCR said.
“The status quo cannot continue,” Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Mediterranean, said in a statement.
“Nobody puts their lives and the lives of their families at risk on these desperate boat journeys unless they feel they have no other choice.