According to eyewitnesses, a group of Tunisians who spent more than a month trying to emigrate by sea exhumed graves in southeast Tunisia in search of remains that might be returned to their families.
On the night of September 20 to 21, a boat carrying 18 immigrants from Tunisia sailed away from the coast of the city of Gerges in an effort to reach the Italian coast.
Eight Tunisian immigrants’ bodies were discovered by fishermen on October 10; 12 Tunisian immigrants remain missing.
Four Tunisian immigrants were unintentionally interred in a cemetery called “Africa Park,” which is typically used to bury migrants’ bodies from sub-Saharan countries when they are discovered off the coast of the area. The bodies were identified, removed under public pressure, and interred in different graves throughout the city.
However, other missing families claimed that other bodies had been interred in the cemetery for their families, an AFP correspondent reported.
Videos posted on the two social media platforms showed men and women opening graves in an effort to learn more about the remains by studying the clothing that was buried alongside them.
In the year 2021, an Algerian artist was established to bury the bodies of migrants, the majority of whom are from the nationalities of countries in sub -Saharan Africa, after the residents of Gerges insisted on refusing to bury them in their graves.
And on Friday, protests were held once more in the city in southeast Tunisia, which serves as a hub for unauthorised immigrants heading to Europe, in order to demand the disclosure of what happened to the 12 people who went missing in the sea a month and a month ago.
The 75,000-person city of Gerges also saw a general strike on October 18 in protest against the interment of some victims without first confirming their identities as well as to call for an investigation into the boat sinking and a stepped-up search for the missing.
After this tragedy, President Qais Saeed ordered the Ministry of Justice to open an investigation to determine responsibilities.
The frequency of unauthorised immigration attempts from the coasts of Tunisia and Libya to the coast of Italy rises with the moderate weather between spring and early autumn, and these attempts occasionally result in drowning.
According to the International Organization for Migration, 1765 migrants were lost in the Mediterranean, which is the riskiest route for immigration in the world.
Security officials recently told Agence France-Presse that the Tunisian government is having trouble stopping or saving migrants and is lamenting a lack of funding.
According to official statistics, more than 22,500 immigrants, including Tunisians and people from sub-Saharan Africa, have been refused entry to the Tunisian coast since the year’s beginning.
In search of the remains of their relatives who perished in the sea, Tunisians are excavating graves.
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