Tunisia: 10 illegal migrants arrested

Ten illegal Tunisian were arrested by the Coast Guard off Chebba (170 km south of Tunis) as they sailed towards the south of Italy, said Monday the private weekly Assabah Alousboui.

• These young candidates for immigration, from the center of the country, had boarded in Sfax (south) in a fishing boat stolen in an attempt to reach illegally the island of Lampedusa, said the newspaper.
  
  The Mediterranean coast of North Africa serves as a starting point for illegal migrants attempting to reach southern Europe, often via the islands of southern Italy.
  
  Arrivals by sea increased sharply in 2008 in Italy, from 14.200 in the period from January to mid-September 2007, to 24.241 over the same period in 2008, according to figures from the Italian Ministry of the Interior.
  
  Ennahar/ M. O./ AFP