TUNIS, March 30 (Reuters) - The Tunisian coastguard rescued some 300 migrants sailing from Libya towards Europe on Wednesday after a leak on their boat, the official TAP news agency said on Wednesday, quoting a security source.
TAP said the migrants had been taken to the transit point of Ras Jdir on the Libyan-Tunisian border, where thousands of refugees have been fleeing to since unrest in Libya began last month, as well as to the southeastern town of Ben Guerdane, where arrangements for evacuations would be made.
"The maritime guards in Sfax rescued 300 migrants from Somalia, Sudan and Bangladesh after they sent out distress calls early on Wednesday after a leak in the boat," TAP said.
It did not say from where they had sailed from in Libya.
Separately, Tunisia's Interior Ministry said the bodies of 12 Tunisian migrants had been recovered after their boat sank on way to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The boat had been carrying 30 migrants from the Tunisian island of Kerkennah towards the tiny southern Italian island, where thousands of migrants have been arriving since the start of the year fleeing the unrest in North Africa.
"The coastguard in Sfax rescued two young men from among 30 who had tried to sail from Kerkennah towards Lampedusa on board a boat which sank at sea," the ministry said. "It recovered 12 bodies."
Italy is to provide Tunisia with 80 million euros (${esc.dollar}112.5 million) worth of aid and equipment to help stem the flow of migration from the North African country to its shores following the unrest in the region, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said last week. [ID:nLDE72O1AY]
A quiet tourist and fishing port, Lampedusa, about 225 km from Tunisia's coast, has been transformed into a garbage-strewn encampment where hundreds of migrants from Tunisia have disembarked from overloaded fishing boats virtually every day. (Reporting By Tarek Amara)
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