The lifeless bodies of four migrants were found on Saturday, bringing to at least eight dead and 17 missing the toll of a shipwreck off Cadiz, in southern Spain near Morocco, the Spanish sea rescue services said. . "
During the day today, four bodies were found,"
said a spokesperson for the Spanish sea rescue service whose search is to continue on Sunday, in this area near Cape Trafalgar. The boat was about 60 km west of Cape Trafalgar when rescuers began to respond, after receiving an alert Thursday evening.
Three survivors were then rescued shortly before 9:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT) while their makeshift boat was sinking. Two men were on board the boat alongside the corpse of a third person, while a woman was rescued in the water and three corpses recovered. According to the survivors, a total of 28 people were initially in the boat without knowing their nationality or their point of departure. The tragedies of immigration are recurrent off the coast of Spain that migrants try to reach, despite the danger, from the Moroccan or Algerian coasts in particular. Spain is generally only a stopover for these migrants whose final destination is often France.
A total of 27,136 migrants arrived by sea in mainland Spain or in the archipelagos of the Balearic Islands or the Canaries between January and the end of September, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of the Interior. That is a jump of 53.8% compared to the same period of 2020. And according to figures communicated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at the end of September, 2021 constitutes "the deadliest year on the migratory route towards Spain ”with at least 1,025 people dead in their attempt to rally Spain or its archipelagos.
The road to the Canaries, in the Atlantic Ocean, is particularly deadly because at least 785 people died trying to reach this archipelago from West Africa between January and August 2021, according to the IOM.
The NGO Caminando Fronteras, which is based on the testimonies of migrants or their families, estimates that more than 2,000 people died or disappeared while trying to reach the Canaries in 2021.
