Tunisia - (AFP) - At least 17 migrants have died in the sinking of four boats off the coast of central Tunisia, according to what Agence France-Presse learned Sunday from a judicial source, who said that 97 people had been rescued.

"The very dilapidated boats left the coast near Sfax on the night of April 22-23," Murad al-Turki, a spokesman for the city courts of Sfax, told AFP.

The spokesman added, "A woman was rushed to the hospital, but she died in the ambulance, and at least one infant was among the victims."

Al-Turki stated that the initial death toll was 17, many of whom were recovered from the sea, and he did not rule out finding other bodies in the coming days, because according to the testimonies of rescued migrants, "there were between 30 and 32 people in each boat."

A spokesman for the courts of Sfax said that the majority of these migrants hail from Ivory Coast, Mali, Somalia and Nigeria, and expressed his fear that other boats would leave in the coming days "because of the improvement in weather conditions."

Hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa arrive in Tunisia with the intention of crossing to Europe across the Mediterranean, often in rickety boats.

Italy is one of the main entry points into Europe for migrants from North Africa, who arrive mainly from Tunisia and Libya, from which the number of departures increased significantly in 2021.

15,671 immigrants, including 584 women, were able to reach Italian soil from the Tunisian coast in 2021, compared to 12,883, including 353 women, in 2020, according to figures from the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.

In total, more than 123,000 migrants arrived in Italy in 2021, compared to about 95,000 in the previous year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

About 2,000 migrants went missing or drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in the same year, compared to 1,401 in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration.