900 migrants reportedly drowned this year off the coast of Tunisia

According to the government of Tunisia, more than 900 migrants have perished off its coast this year while attempting to go by boat to Europe.

According to the interior ministry, 901 bodies from marine mishaps in the Mediterranean Sea had been found as of July 20.

In their attempt to make the risky sea journeys in frequently dilapidated boats in search of a better life in Europe, irregular migrants and asylum seekers have made Tunisia one of their main entry points.

Sfax, the second-largest city in Tunisia, and Lampedusa, an island off the coast of Italy, are separated by roughly 130 kilometers (80 miles).

Nearly 800 migrants had perished by late June, according to National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli, and more than 34,000 had been stopped and saved, the majority of them from sub-Saharan Africa.

Over 1,300 actions were conducted out by coastguard units, more than twice as many as during the same time previous year.

More than 550 “organisers and intermediaries” of human trafficking activities, according to the interior ministry, have been detained so far this year.

The majority of those who have crossed the Mediterranean to reach Italian shores this year, according to the Italian authorities, are from war-torn Libya and Tunisia.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that over 20,000 people have died traveling across the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the world’s most dangerous migration route.