A shipwreck off the coast of Morocco causes two deaths and more than 40 missing

Landing last August of the bodies of the three women drowned in the shipwreck of a boat that occurred in waters near Lanzarote. Carlos de Saá (EFE)

The shipwreck of a pneumatic boat on the coast of Tarfaya, in southern Morocco, has caused the death of two people and the disappearance of another 41 this Sunday. The Moroccan navy found the bodies of two people and managed to rescue ten survivors alive, but nothing is yet known about the rest of the passengers, as reported by Helena Maleno, head of the NGO Walking Borders. "According to the stories of the survivors, they went to the bottom of the sea," he laments. Among the victims, according to Maleno, there were 26 men, 14 women and three babies. The boat, which had 53 people on board, intended to reach the Canary Islands through a route that last year claimed the lives of at least 1,000 migrants, according to the International Organization for Migration. The figure exceeds 4,000 victims in the calculations of Caminando Fronteras.This newspaper has tried unsuccessfully to contrast the information with the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior.

The boat left after 00:00 on Sunday and four hours later its occupants had already raised the alarm.

According to Maleno, they called their families to report that they had problems with navigation and sent their position, in front of the Khenifiss national park in Tarfaya.

The Moroccan navy, responsible for the rescue on its coasts, assumed the coordination of the rescue.

At six in the morning, according to Maleno's reconstruction, there were already people in the water.

The NGO Alarm Phone has stated on Twitter that they also received a call from the boat that night.

“They were in a panic, the boat is sinking and there are people in the water.

We informed the authorities eight hours ago, no one is intervening, ”said the tweet published at noon this Sunday in which Morocco is accused of failing to fulfill its rescue responsibilities.

Alarm Phone has sent EL PAÍS a schedule of its communications with relatives, with the boat and the Spanish and Moroccan authorities. According to the sequence described, at 6:20 am on Sunday, the NGO informs the maritime coordination center in Rabat of the difficulties in which the boat is. They are informed that a search and rescue operation would be launched, but no one confirms when. At 12:55, the NGO learned from the Spanish authorities that there was already a Moroccan Navy ship assigned to this mission. At 2:20 p.m. that ship still had an hour to go to reach the point of last known coordinates. Upon arrival, he finds no remains of the boat. The NGO, he warns, cannot send an updated position because since 9:00 he no longer has communication with the pneumatics. at 5:30 p.m.Alarm Phone receives information from the Spanish authorities that the aerial search has been suspended because the ship has found the wreck and is already providing assistance. Among the survivors there are four men and six women, who were transferred to Tarfaya. “The Moroccan authorities were aware of the position of the boat in danger since 6:30. What did they do from 6.30 to 14.00? Is it that the Moroccan authorities deliberately delayed the search and rescue operation, or is it that they do not have the necessary means to comply with their international obligations in this matter?

The area they came out of is tough for flimsy rubber boats. “It is a rocky area and the pneumatics that come out of there are very rough”, describes the activist Maleno. The use of pneumatics has been precisely a constant in 2021 on this route and one of the factors that explains the alarming increase in deaths on the journey to the Canary Islands. Unlike the wooden fishing boats (pateras and cayucos) that are generally used to cross the Atlantic to the islands, the rubber boats are not prepared for the open sea. To the precariousness of the materials, it is added that they leave and arrive at steep coasts and that they are overloaded. This same Monday, according to EFE, the bodies of two teenagers were found on the coast of Fuerteventura.It is being investigated whether they are victims of some shipwreck of which there is no record yet or if they were thrown into the sea from a boat before making landfall.