The Royal Moroccan Navy rescued between Tuesday July 20 and Friday July 23 to 368 migrants, including three children and seven women, as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean to Spain, according to the Moroccan press agency MAP.
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The rescued migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, "
were in difficulty aboard 22 inflatable boats, 30 kayaks
" and five other small boats, MAP said on Friday, adding that their health was "
degraded
" and that 'they "
received the necessary first aid
".
Located at the northwestern tip of Africa, the kingdom is a transit country for many migrants, from sub-Saharan Africa but also Moroccans, who dream of reaching Europe via the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, where they try to reach the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands.
Last week, the Royal Navy rescued 344 other migrants off the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts in five days. Some 12,622 migrants arrived in Spain by sea in the first half of 2021, almost double the number of arrivals in the same period last year (7,256), according to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. A total of 2,087 migrants perished trying to reach Spain between January and June, according to a recent study by the NGO Caminando Fronteras.
