Two people who were on a boat that sank off the coast of Tunisia were found dead, along with a baby.
The boat with 20 Tunisians on board sank in Gabes on Saturday, just 120 meters (395 feet) from the shore.
In a statement, it said, “Two bodies have been found. One is that of a 20-year-old man, and the other is that of an infant.”
Five people were reported lost, and 13 were saved.
Gabes’s government has started an investigation to “find out what happened,” as they put it.
The event happened when there were a lot of migrants and refugees trying to get to Europe. Tunisia was a major landing place for people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe.
The International Organization for Migration says that more than 1,800 people have died on the road, which makes it the most dangerous in the world. On Wednesday, 41 people died when a boat sank after leaving Sfax, a city on the coast of Tunisia that is a major starting point for migrants. Four people who were still alive were brought to the island of Lampedusa in Sicily.
When they heard that the ship had sunk, some migrants in Tunisia, many of whom had fled hard lives in sub-Saharan Africa, said they were still determined to get to Europe.
A weakening economy in Tunisia and a rise in racist violence caused by a speech by President Kais Saied in February have made it more important for refugees to get to Europe quickly.
Many Black refugees who lived in Sfax and planned to sail to Europe were kicked out of their homes in July after the death of a local man who was thought to have been involved in attacks on the refugees.
Dozens of people were picked up and sent to the borders of Tunisia with Libya and Algeria, where they were left to die in the scorching desert heat. On Wednesday, 27 bodies were found at the border with Libya.
Last month, the European Union and Tunisia signed a deal for 105 million euros ($115 million) in aid to stop migrant boats from leaving.