Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed has sacked Minister of the Interior Lotfi Brahem, a statement by the government said on Wednesday.Mr Brahem will be replaced by Justice Minister Ghazi Jeribi who will act on an interim basis until a replacement is found, according to the statement.
While no reason was given for the dismissal, Prime Minister Chahed had earlier criticised security forces’ inability to prevent a boat packed with some 180 migrants from sinking off the country’s coast.more than 68 people were killed.
Human traffickers increasingly use Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as Libya’s coastguard, aided by armed groups, has tightened controls.
Most of the people on board the boat that sank on Sunday were Tunisians trying to escape unemployment and an economic crisis that has gripped the North African country since the toppling of autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
Hundreds of people protested in the southern towns of Madenine, Tataouine and El Hamma on Tuesday evening against the poor economic conditions, residents said.
Human traffickers have increasingly moved their operations to Tunisia since a crackdown by the coastguard in neighbouring Libya.
Tunisia stopped about 6,000 migrants leaving its coast for Europe in the first five months of the year – a sharp increase from the few hundred prevented in the same period last year, an interior ministry official said.