Tunisian Mabrook Zaytooni’s family spent Eid al-Fitr hoping to find the body of their son who died in the Mediterranean Sea. Mabrook, just 25, drowned with at least 13 others attempting to sail to Italy. The boat, which had 28 passengers on board, sank as soon as it left the coast of the Libyan city of Sabratha on July 3.

All the passengers were from the city of Ben Guerdane, located far south on the border with Libya, where an attack left dozens dead and wounded in March. The perpetrators were militants with the Islamic State (IS), which wants to establish an emirate in the city. A large number of the IS members who participated in the attack were residents of the city.

In Ben Guerdane, a small city that enjoys a strategic position and serves as a gateway between Tunisia, Libya and the Sahara's Mediterranean coast, the young residents are falling prey to jihadist recruitment and illegal immigration. The town’s proximity to Libya may have made it more vulnerable to these highly active networks amid the security chaos plaguing the country.

Hussein Zaytooni, Mabrook's older brother, told Al-Monitor that they were “born to a poor, big family." He said that their "father is a per diem worker who has a basic educational level and no stable income. Being unemployed, these tough economic times led [Mabrook] to opt for emigration to Europe with no prospects of getting a job.”