The chief suspect in Kerkennah migrant shipwreck, who was captured on Thursday, confessed to organising the crossing, the Tunisian Interior Ministry Saturday said in a statement.
A boat carrying no less than 200 illegal migrants sank on June 2 off Kerkennah, governorate of Sfax, killing 87 people; 68 crossers were rescued.
Survivors said there were at least 180 people on board when the fishing vessel began to sink near Tunisia’s Kekennah Islands off the southern coastal city of Sfax.
The chief suspect was captured as he was hiding in the boot of a car that was about to leave Kerkennah ferry terminal for Sfax.
The man also said he was paid 20,000 dinars for smuggling migrants and deposited the sum into his wife’s bank account, in addition to 10,000 dinars in other crossing fees.
The wife admitted the facts and said she withdrew the money in the wake of the shipwreck to hide it at home.
The public prosecutor ordered the smuggler and his wife to be held in custody. Four wanted notices were already issued for him in connection to illegal border crossing in addition to a warrant of detention in this case.
The catastrophe caused the dismissal of Interior Minister Lotfi Brahem and 10 security officers for not stopping in time the boat in which about 180 immigrants were traveling.
Since then, security forces have taken strong measures against human trafficking in various parts of Tunisia.
Human traffickers increasingly use Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as Libya’s coastguard, aided by armed groups, has tightened control.
Tunisia stopped about 6,000 migrants leaving its coast for Europe in the first five months of the year, a sharp increase from the few hundred prevented in the same period last year, an Interior Ministry official said.
Tunisians and other migrants regularly try to cross the Mediterranean to seek a better future in Europe.
TunisianMonitorOnline
