Tunisian coast guard forces recovered the bodies of eight Tunisian migrants whose boat sank ​at the weekend en route to Italy, while ‌the search continued for six others still missing, a National Guard spokesperson said on Sunday.

Coast guard, military and civil protection teams, backed ​by two helicopters, continued to search for the ​missing migrants.

The boat, which set off early on ⁠Thursday with 15 mostly young people on board, sank ​off the Tunisian coast this weekend, and so far only ​one person had been rescued, the head of a migrant rights group said on Saturday.

Among those on board were seven members of ​the same family and a man with his pregnant ​wife, the head of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.

The ‌sole ⁠survivor said he had been adrift at sea for 48 hours before being rescued by a commercial vessel.

All of the migrants were from the Ben Guerdane area in ​southeastern Tunisia, and ​dozens of ⁠young people gathered late on Saturday in the town near the Libyan border to ​demand that search operations be accelerated.

Police fired tear ​gas ⁠to disperse the protesters.

The central Mediterranean route from the North African coast is one of the world's deadliest migration routes, ⁠used ​by migrants from Africa and the ​Middle East seeking to reach Europe, often in overcrowded or unseaworthy boats.