Thousands of migrants go missing or lose their lives every year along the migration routes. But it seems that the measures taken were not sufficient to effectively address this human tragedy that is playing out before our eyes.

In 2023, Tunisia became the main point of departure for migrants who wanted to cross the Mediterranean, ahead of Libya. According to Lemonde, the national navy intercepted 14,000 migrants between January and March, five times more than in 2022. Also for the UN, the first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest for six years.

The scenes filmed on the quay of the Sfax port and the images shared on social networks show an important number of corpses transmitted to the morgue of the Habib-Bourguiba hospital. As evidenced by the anonymous graves marked with a simple number, the municipal cemetery of Essadi, located north of Sfax, has recently welcomed many migrants.

For Filippo Furri, whose research focuses on deaths in a migratory context, “the increase in departures means an increase in shipwrecks and therefore an increase in the number of bodies”; deaths that occur during attempts to illegally cross the country’s borders.

Thousands of migrants go missing or lose their lives every year along the migration routes. In 2018, UN Member States adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, to « save lives and establish coordinated international action to locate missing migrants ». But it seems that the measures taken were not sufficient to effectively address this human tragedy that is playing out before our eyes.