Violent protests broke out on Sunday, August 23, in the southeastern Tunisian city of Ben Guerdane following the sinking of a boat carrying over a dozen migrants off the country’s southeastern coast—one of the deadliest crossing routes to Europe in the world. The vessel, which set off from a point between Zarzis and Ben Guerdane and was bound for the island of Lampedusa with 15 people on board, mostly youths, sank late Friday night, August 21, about 14 nautical miles (26 km) off the coast of Zarzis. However, some Tunisian sources report that the boat actually set sail from the port of El Ktef with a higher number of people on board and sank about six hours into the journey. A lone survivor was rescued by a commercial vessel after floating at sea for roughly 48 hours, attributing the shipwreck directly to the boat being severely overloaded. The Tunisian National Guard has already recovered 19 bodies, although it remains unconfirmed whether all the remains belong to the same vessel. Meanwhile, search operations for the missing continue. According to the National Guard, about 14 of those on board were from the Ben Guerdane area and one from Zarzis. Mostafa Abdelkebir, president of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters that the victims include seven members of the same family, and that a hospital in Ben Guerdane has received at least 19 bodies of migrants recovered from the sea in recent days. Not all of these bodies likely belong to the same wrecked vessel, and DNA testing is underway to identify them and establish the exact number of people truly on board. Grief for the victims quickly turned into anger. On the evening of Sunday, August 23, protesters blocked roads and set tires on fire in Ben Guerdane, while law enforcement responded by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. Protests continued the following day, marked by clashes between residents and security forces, and tensions show no sign of easing. Demonstrators are demanding better living conditions and investments for the region’s economic development, arguing that a lack of opportunities and years of marginalization are driving young people to undertake perilous sea journeys to Europe in search of a better future. Several rallies also called on authorities to accelerate search and rescue operations and launch an independent investigation into the causes of the shipwreck. MP Imad Oulad Jibril described the tragedy as “the drama of a nation that watches its youth flee the hardships of the land only to be swallowed by the sea.” The opposition Democratic Bloc linked the sinking to the country’s economic struggles, stating: “When crossing the sea becomes easier than living in Tunisia, we must ask ourselves: whose fault is it?” Other political forces also weighed in on the matter. The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the country’s main trade union, demanded a serious and urgent investigation into the circumstances of the shipwreck, while the Workers’ Party, led by Hamma Hammami, expressed solidarity with the demands of the Ben Guerdane protesters. It criticized the authorities’ approach, which it deemed overly focused on control and security measures in managing the protests, lacking a genuine vision for development in the region—an economy historically and largely tied to cross-border trade passing through the Ras Jedir border crossing. The party also reiterated its rejection of the migration agreements concluded between Tunisia and the European Union in July 2023, arguing that they have turned the country into a border guard for southern Europe without helping to stop deaths in the Mediterranean. Many called for the proclamation of a national day of mourning for the victims.
Unfortunately, the Zarzis shipwreck is not an isolated tragedy. In 2022, a boat carrying 18 people disappeared off the same coast, sparking weeks of protests after victims’ families accused authorities of failing to conduct adequate searches. Even more severe was the 2018 Kerkennah disaster, when more than 100 people died or went missing in the sinking of a migrant vessel—an incident that led to the resignation of the then-Minister of the Interior. Tunisia’s southeastern coast lies just 145 km (90 miles) from the Italian island of Lampedusa, making this one of the most heavily traveled — and deadliest — routes for migrants heading to Europe. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Central Mediterranean is considered the most dangerous migration route in the world: this year, at least 821 migrants have already died or gone missing along this path, more than double the number recorded in the same period of the previous year. Considering the entire Mediterranean basin, the overall death toll rises to at least 1,065 dead or missing.
The tragedy of migration in the Mediterranean is never merely a public order emergency or a border issue, but rather the profound symptom of a social and economic failure. When entire families are wiped out by the sea and the immediate reaction is anger in the streets, it means the Mediterranean is no longer just a geographical border, but the fault line between the despair of those who choose to risk their lives and the abandonment of those who remain in marginalized territories. Reducing everything to a matter of security or police enforcement means turning a blind eye to the root causes: the lack of a future, a structural economic crisis, and international agreements that often shift the burden of flow management onto transit countries without offering real prospects for development. Until the political response remains purely repressive rather than centered on rights, cooperation, and human dignity, the protests in Ben Guerdane and the shipwrecks off Zarzis will continue to recur, leaving us to reckon with a grief that no statistic can ever convey.
