At least 46 migrants dead after boat sinks off Tunisian coast

TUNIS — At least 46 migrants were killed when their boat sank off Tunisia's southern coast and 67 others were rescued by the coast guard, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

The rescue operation was ongoing, the ministry said in a statement. The migrants were of Tunisian and other nationalities. 

Human traffickers increasingly use Tunisia as a launchpad for migrants heading to Europe as Libya's coast guard, aided by armed groups, has tightened controls.

Security officials said the boat was packed with about 180 migrants, including 80 from other African countries.

Unemployed Tunisians and other Africans often try to depart in makeshift boats from Tunisia to Sicily in Italy.

Separately, nine people including six children died on Sunday after a speedboat carrying 15 refugees sank off the coast of Turkey's southern province of Antalya, the Turkish coast guard said in a statement. 

Reducing the flow of migrants into Italy is one of the aims of the anti-immigrant League party in Italy and its leader Matteo Salvini who was sworn in as the country's new interior minister on Friday. 

Salvini and his party have promised to block the arrival of boat migrants from Africa and to deport up to 100,000 illegal immigrants per year.

"The objective is to save lives. And this is done by preventing the departures of the boats of death that are a business for some and a disgrace for the rest of the world," Salvini said in a statement commenting on both incidents. 

"I will work to ensure that all the international organisations commit to stop departures, landings and deaths."

As of May 30, 32,080 people had reached Europe by sea so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on its website. Some 660 had died attempting the crossing, it said.