At least two migrants including a baby died when their bank sank Saturday soon after leaving the coast of Tunisia, the coastguard said.
The vessel, carrying 20 Tunisians, went down at 2:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) when it was just 120 meters (395 feet) from the shoreline in the southeastern province of Gabes.
“Two bodies have been recovered, one of a 20-year-old man and the other of an infant,” the coast guard said in a statement.
Thirteen others were rescued, including the baby’s parents. Five passengers were missing and search operations were ongoing, the statement added.
A similar tragedy occurred off the Tunisian coast on Monday, when a boat carrying migrants sank near the eastern city of Sfax, leaving 11 people dead.
Sfax serves as a launching port for migrants from African countries to begin their risky sea journeys to Europe, via the Italian island of Lampedusa.
More than 1,800 people have died this year in shipwrecks on the central Mediterranean migration route, the world’s deadliest — more than twice as many as last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.