The bodies of 11 migrants, who drowned off Tunisia’s southern coast, were recovered, announced the Interior Ministry on Sunday.
It said that 67 other migrants were rescued after their fishing vessel sank off the southern Sfax province.
The migrants were of Tunisian and other nationalities.
The Tunisian national guard and navy units found the ship about 30 kilometers off shore after receiving a distress call at around midnight on Saturday.
The ministry said search operations, with the help of military aircraft and divers, were ongoing.
Tunisians and migrants regularly try to cross the Mediterranean to seek a better future in Europe, but departures peaked last September.
According to NGOs, 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".
