IOM: possibly 110 deaths from Tunisia's boat drama

rome - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) fears that up to 110 people may have lost their lives off the coast of Tunisia. There sank a boat with migrants on Sunday. The official death toll is at 48, but according to an IOM spokesman there are 'possibly about 64 missing.'

The Tunisian Ministry of Defense announced earlier that mainly Tunisians were on the sunken boat. The Coast Guard could save 67 people. People smugglers are increasingly using Tunisia as a starting point for boats that try to reach Europe with migrants.

One survivor said Sunday that the captain disembarked when the boat began to sink. The human smuggler wanted to prevent him from being arrested by the Coast Guard. 'I survived by clinging to wood for nine hours,' said the rescued drowning man at a hospital in the Tunisian city of Sfax.

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