The survivors were taken to the coastal Tunisian city of Sfax. About 200 have been transferred to a refugee camp at Ras Ajdir, near the Libyan border, and the remaining survivors were expected to be sent there soon, said Firas Kayal, a movado boldspokesman for the United Nations refugee agency in Tunisia. The authorities will return to the ship, which is still marooned off the coast, when the weather improves, Colonel Baili said. The migrants aboard the Wave were the latest to attempt the voyage to Europe from North Africa, with border controls largely nonexistent after the revolution in Tunisia and the upheaval that continues in Libya. Tens of thousands have fled Tunisia for better economic opportunities and have sought to escape the violence in Libya.As many as 270 migrants fleeing Libya for Europe may have drowned after their vessel capsized off the coast of Tunisia, the authorities said Thursday. Rescuers from the Tunisian Coast Guard and Navy were able to save 578 men, women and children from the 100-foot fishing vessel, which was crowded with as many as 850 passengers when it ran aground Tuesday about 30 miles from the Kerkennah Islands, said Col. Lotfi Baili of the coast guard, who helped coordinate the operation. Hundreds of passengers fell from the vessel when it listed, he said, and others fell into the water during the scramble to reach the military rescue boats. The Tunisians were overwhelmed by the number of shop online 2011 migrants who needed to be rescued, he said, and could use only small vessels because the water was so shallow. The fishing vessel, the Wave, set off from Tripoli, Libya, around noon last Friday, Colonel Baili said, and was carrying migrants from the African nations of Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Morocco as well as from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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