The bodies of 35 migrants have been recovered off Tunisia's southern coast, the country's defence ministry said yesterday, revising upwards an earlier government death toll.

As of 1:00 pm, "35 bodies were recovered and 68 migrants rescued," said Rachid Bouhoula, a spokesman for the ministry.

The interior ministry reported a distress call on Saturday night at 10:45 pm from "a fishing boat about to sink" with migrants on board.

Tunisians and seven foreigners were among the survivors, including nationals from Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco and Cameroon, said the defence ministry spokesman.

"The coastguard and the navy continue their search with the support of a military plane," the interior ministry said in a statement.

"Units of the Sfax Marine Guard and the Navy went to the boat which was five nautical miles from Kerkennah island and 16 nautical miles from the city of Sfax," the ministry added.

Tunisians and migrants regularly try to cross the Mediterranean to seek a better future in Europe, but departures peaked last September.

According to non-governmental organisations, the uptick reflected frustration among young people hard hit by unemployment.

In October, a collision between a migrant boat and a Tunisian military ship left at least 44 dead, in what Prime Minister Youssef Chahed called a "national disaster".

NINE DROWN OFF TURKEY

Nine migrants, including six children, seeking to head to Europe in a speedboat drowned yesterday when the vessel sank off Turkey's Mediterranean coast, state media reports said.

The boat hit trouble off the Demre district of Turkey's Mediterranean Antalya province, a popular holiday spot, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. Five were rescued while one person was still missing, it added.

Two adults, one woman and six children lost their lives, it said.

The Dogan news agency said that they were seeking to head illegally to Europe but their planned route was not immediately clear.

The nearest EU territory is the small Greek island of Kastellorizo to the west which lies off the Turkish resort of Kas.

The nationalities of those on board have yet to be made clear.

Over a million people, many fleeing the war in Syria, crossed to European Union member Greece from Turkey in 2015 after the onset of the bloc's worst migration crisis since World War II.

Turkey struck a deal with the EU in 2016 in a effort to stem the flow of migrants into Europe, and agreed to take back illegal migrants landing on Greek islands in exchange for incentives including financial aid.

The deal, chastised by rights groups, sharply curbed the number of migrants seeking to cross the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas from Turkey to Greece.

However observers say that the numbers seeking to cross this route have been ticking up again in recent months.