The Italian government and the European Union are trying to reduce migrant arrivals by sea from Tunisia, the African country closest to Sicily's Italian coast. On Sunday, the EU signed an agreement with the Tunisian government led by President Kais Saied, which provides, among other things, 105 million euros to prevent the departure of migrant and asylum seeker boats. The Tunisian Coast Guard has been receiving European funds for years to intercept and return migrants to Tunisia, but they have never been so large. From 1 January 2023 to 16 July, 77,906 migrants arrived by sea in Italy. In the same period in 2022 there were 32,737. It means that more and more migrants are leaving, more and more from Tunisia and less and less from Libya: in Lampedusa, in fact, almost only boats arrive from Sfax, the main Tunisian coastal city from which migrants leave. Saied is trying to blame sub-Saharan migrants for the very serious economic and social crisis that Tunisia is going through. His words had very concrete consequences: many families found themselves homeless, evicted from the houses they rented, and without work. In early July, some 1,200 sub-Saharan people were arrested by Tunisian security forces and abandoned a desert area on the border with Libya. Many seek refuge in Europe, with journeys often resulting in tragic shipwrecks at sea. The island of Lampedusa in particular is closer to the African coast than to the Italian ones and with a boat in good condition you can reach it in a few hours from the port of Sfax.