...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...by boat, a National Guard front man told AFP Thursday.
"789 bodies of
The North African country has become a major gateway for irregular
The distance between Tunisia, near its second city of Sfax, and the Italian island of Lampedusa is about 130 kilometres (80 miles), and the sea voyages pick up in the summer months.
Between January 1 and June 20, a total of 34,290
More than 30,000 of those rescued this year were foreigners, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, he said.
Coastguard units carried out 1,310 operations in the first six months, more than double the number of missions for that period last year.
The Italian government says that more than 80,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to arrive on its shores so far this year, mostly from Tunisia and from war-scarred Libya.
The central Mediterranean has become the world's deadliest migratory route, claiming more than 20,000 lives since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.
FLARING RACIAL TENSIONS
Or tribal, perhaps, or cultural.
As Tunisia has become a growing hub on the migrant route, racial tensions and violence have flared in the country of 12 million which is struggling with a deep economic crisis.High inflation and growing unemployment have seen many Tunisians too try to flee their country.
Xenophobic attacks have repeatedly targeted black African
Saied -- who rules by decree since a power grab two years ago -- has alleged that "hordes" of sub-Saharan
Earlier this month, as Sfax was rocked by racial violence, authorities loaded many
Human Rights Watch said up to 1,200 black Africans were "expelled or forcibly transferred by Tunisian security forces" to the border regions with Libya and Algeria this month.
The Tunisian Red Islamic Thingy, and Libyan border guards, have reported helping
Saied sacked the Tunisian government and froze parliament in a dramatic July 2021 move against the sole democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings.
The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
has recently been in talks with his government, offering Tunisia a major funding package to help it revive its flagging and debt-hit economy, and better secure its borders.
