Migrants stand on board the rescue ship Louise Michel, funded by British street artist Banksy, during a rescue operation by crew members of civil sea rescue ship Sea-Watch 4 off the coast of Malta on Saturday. Photo: AFP

A migrant boat sinking off the coast of Tunisia over the weekend left at least 21 people dead, a court said Tuesday, after four more bodies were found.

Seven survivors were rescued on Sunday and a total of 17 bodies have now been retrieved.  

There was little hope of finding more survivors among the remaining four or five missing passengers, said Sfax court spokesman Mourad Turki in a statement.

Turki had previously said that the boat had been carrying 29 people, including two Tunisians and people from various sub-Saharan African countries.

Among those drowned were three children, including a baby less than six months old, as well as seven women aged between 20 and 30, and the two Tunisian men.

The interior ministry had said it foiled 32 attempts to cross the Mediterranean and arrested 262 people between Saturday night and Sunday morning alone.

The International Organization for Migration said that many Ivorians, including women, had been trying to leave Tunisia in 2020's summer as they struggled to find work in the North African country.

At the risk of their lives, thousands of migrants regularly attempt to cross the Mediterranean in clandestine boats, trying to reach Europe where they hope to find work and better lives. 

Since the start of 2020 until mid-September, more than 8,500 people had been intercepted trying to reach Europe by sea from Tunisia, including 2,104 non-Tunisians, the ministry said. 

AFP