As more migrants attempt to reach Europe, more people are dying in the Mediterranean.
The plight of those fleeing poverty and persecution is leaving a tragic mark on the shores of Tunisia, even as officials from the European Union fight to stop the exodus.
Oussama Dabbebi, a fisherman, starts hauling in his nets as the sun rises over the horizon off the shores of its eastern coast. He stares intently at its contents because occasionally he finds something other than fish.
I occasionally receive dead bodies in place of fish. My initial reaction was fear, but I gradually grew accustomed to it. After a while, pulling a dead body from my net is similar to pulling a fish. ".
The 30-year-old fisherman claims he recently discovered 15 migrants' bodies in his nets over the course of three days while wearing a dark hooded sweat short and shorts.
Once, I discovered a baby's body. I was crying, wondering how a baby could be responsible for anything. Adults experience it differently because they have lived. But the infant, as you may know, didn't see anything. ".
Since he was ten years old, Mr. Dabbebi has been fishing in the waters near Sfax, the second-largest city in Tunisia.
He recalls casting his nets alongside many others at the time, but today, he claims, most fishermen have sold their boats to people smugglers for astronomical sums.
Smugglers have frequently made me absurdly generous offers to sell my boat. I've always declined because I could never forgive myself if they used my boat and someone perished. ".
Nearby, a group of South Sudanese migrants are slowly leaving the port despite the fact that their country has been plagued by conflict, climate change, and food insecurity since gaining independence in 2011.
In the end, everyone wants to get to the UK. One explains that due to an overcrowded boat and deteriorating weather, they have reluctantly given up trying to cross to Italy a second time.
"The boat was incredibly small, and there were a ton of people on board. We continued to move forward despite the strong wind that met us as we pushed away from the shore. There was excessive wind. ".
13,000 migrants were reportedly forcibly removed from their frequently crowded boats near Sfax and brought back to land in the first three months of this year, according to the Tunisian National Guard.
According to the UN refugee agency, 24,000 people fled the Tunisian coast in improvised boats between January and April of this year and arrived in Italy.
The nation is now the primary point of departure for migrants traveling to Europe. This dubious honor was formerly held by Libya, but migration to Tunisia has increased as a result of gang-related kidnappings and violence against migrants.
Although the boat involved in the catastrophe off the Greek coast last week, which has left at least 78 people dead and an estimated 500 people missing, sailed from Libya.
Many of their corroding and decaying ships are either partially submerged in water or piled high next to the port in Sfax. the world's deadliest known migration route serves as a desolate reminder of its dangers.
At the cemetery outside the city, there is yet another somber reminder.
Waiting for the next loss of life at sea are rows of recently dug graves that are empty and spread out throughout the cemetery.
They won't, however, suffice. Now being considered is building a new cemetery solely for immigrants.
More than 200 migrant bodies were pulled from the sea here earlier this year in just one two-week period.
Since 2014, more than 27,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean.
The city is having a lot of trouble because of this tragedy's rapid progression.
Dr. Hatem Cherif, the director of the regional health authority, claims that there are simply not enough facilities to handle the volume of deaths.
A maximum of 35 to 40 people can fit in the hospital mortuary. This is usually enough, but the number of bodies coming in is far beyond what we can handle, and it's getting worse. ".
Recently, the mortuary received as many as 250 bodies. The majority of them had to be stacked one on top of the other in a chilly adjacent space that was ominously dubbed the "catastrophe chamber.". However, Dr. Cherif was quick to point out that each person will be laid to rest in a unique grave with a grave number.
Since many of the deceased are still unidentified, DNA tests are being planned, and the results are being carefully stored.
By looking for matches with their own DNA, it will be possible for relatives looking for lost loved ones to determine whether they are interred here.
Several hundred members of Tunisia's black minority, many of them women and children, are camped in small tents outside the International Organization for Migration's offices in central Tunis, three hours to the north-west.
Following a racial rant by the nation's president Kais Saied in February, all of them were forced out of their homes and fired from their jobs in the city.
He asserted that "hordes" of unauthorized immigrants were entering the nation as part of a "criminal" scheme to alter its population.
Comments have been widely interpreted as an effort to find scapegoats for the severe economic crisis that has driven many desperate Tunisians to emigrate themselves. .
A young man from Sierra Leone, still recovering from a brutal civil war that ended in 2002, points to a recent stabbing wound on his arm and claims that since the president's speech, knife-wielding local youths have attacked numerous people in this area.
A group of Arab boys arrived to attack us. If we remain here, the police assured us that they would keep us safe. We are not safe, though, if we leave this region. ".
This worrying situation, the country's president's continued imprisonment of critics, and the erosion of civil rights all appear to be less of a priority to EU officials than stopping the flow of migrants.
Over 47,000 migrants have entered Italy so far this year, a threefold increase from the same time last year, and there is an increasing call for action.
A visiting delegation led by the head of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, made a brief visit here earlier this month and expressed interest in providing a potential financial support package worth close to 1 billion euros ($1 billion; £850 million).
If approved, approximately one-tenth of this amount would be used to combat human trafficking.
The tragedy last week off the Greek coast has increased calls for action.
But it will be difficult to stop the increasing flow of small boats with so many migrants in such a desperate situation and people smuggling being so profitable for traffickers.
Migrants from all over Africa and the Middle East congregate in large groups in shady areas of Sfax's streets.
Some can afford to pay for a spot on a trafficker's boat, but others are stuck in the middle, unable to even cover their basic needs like food and shelter.
Some people never had a passport because they left their countries illegally, while others had theirs stolen or lost.
Although everyone is aware of the tragic deaths of so many people trying to emigrate to Europe, as one young man from Guinea demonstrated, it appears that desperation continues to outweigh danger.
"We lack money and passports, so we are unable to return to our home country. I'm not scared. My parents are completely impoverished, and there is extreme poverty [at home]. That is not how I want my kids to live. I must leave. ".
The tragedy is that this universal human desire for a better life frequently comes at such a high cost.
