The nine suspected terrorists were part of a group of 15 migrants intercepted by the Tunisian Coast Guard and the counter-terrorist team of Bizerte, in the north of the country. The nine men, aged between 21 and 39, were handed over to the National Guard Unit investigating terrorism for questioning.
According to the European Union’s Frontex border control agency, around 1,900 migrants arrived in Italy in July, or 83 percent fewer than in the same month of 2017. In total, the number of migrants intercepted on the central Mediterranean route in the first seven months of 2018 decreased to around 18,200, or 81 percent less than in the same period of 2017.
The number of arrivals in Spain, on the other hand, has quadrupled and more than half (8,800) of the 14,900 migrants who arrived in the European Union in July landed on the Iberian peninsula. In the first seven months of the year, some 23,100 migrants were received in Spain, twice the figure from the previous year.