The coast guard previously said it had stopped hundreds of boats heading for Italy this year and detained more than 3,000 people.

The Tunisian coast guard recovered 901 bodies of drowned migrants off its coast from January 1 to July 20 this year, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting the country's interior minister, Kamel Feki.

Mr Feki told parliament that among 901 bodies found were 36 Tunisians and 267 foreign migrants, while the identities of the rest were unknown.

This marks an unprecedented number of victims off the country's coasts, he said.

The North African country is facing a record wave of migration this year and frequent catastrophes of the sinking of boats of migrants - most from sub-Saharan Africa, Syria, and Sudan - trying to reach Italy.

The coast guard previously said it had stopped hundreds of boats heading for Italy this year and detained more than 3,000 people.

Tunisian authorities are struggling to contain the surge, and some morgues are running out of space to bury the victims, according to Al Jazeera.

This sharp increase in Tunisia is in part due to a crackdown on departures by authorities in neighbouring Libya.

Most of the boats carrying migrants depart from the coast of the southern city of Sfax.

"Thousands of undocumented migrants have flocked to the coastal city of Sfax in recent months with the goal of setting off for Europe in boats run by human traffickers, leading to an unprecedented migration crisis for Tunisia," Reuters reported.

Some 75,065 boat migrants had reached Italy by 14 July against 31,920 in the same period last year, official data showed. More than half left Tunisia.

Earlier this month, the European Union and Tunisia signed a treaty that includes combating human traffickers and tightening sea borders during a sharp increase in boats leaving the North African nation for Europe.