TUNIS, July 12 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of illegal migrant ship disaster off the southeastern coast of Tunisia rises to 72, the Tunisian Red Crescent (CRT) said on Friday.
Tunisian Maritime Guard units and the civil protection, supported by the volunteers of the CRT, have recovered on Thursday, until late hours of the night, 47 bodies of the illegal African migrants who drowned a few days ago off Tunisia coast.
The exhumation of the bodies took place off Zarzis and Djerba coasts.
According to the CRT, the rescue operation is underway to find the remaining victims.
These people were aboard an illegal boat that had left the Libyan coast to Europe in early July, carrying 86 immigrants, including seven women and three children.
The bodies, in decomposition, were transferred to Gabes, for genetic analysis before their burial in a cemetery reserved for immigrants.
