Deaths keep mounting on Tunisia's Mediterranean route, even as crossings fall

Sea arrivals in Italy fell 55 percent in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, both Italy's interior ministry and the UN refugee agency report, as tighter controls on departures from Tunisia and Libya took hold. Tunisians still made up about 820 of those Italian arrivals through mid-August, eighth among nationalities, while deaths on the central Mediterranean route rose more than 150 percent this year, the International Organization for Migration says. Deaths are rising in Ben Guerdane too, where the final toll from a late-August shipwreck stood at fifteen dead and one survivor, yet residents describe hundreds still hoping to make the crossing.

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