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Thirteen migrants found dead after shipwreck off Morocco

2022-12-31T14:09:29.671Z


The bodies of 13 Moroccan migrants, including a woman, were recovered Friday by the Moroccan authorities, after the sinking of their boat in...


The bodies of 13 Moroccan migrants, including a woman, were recovered Friday by the Moroccan authorities, after the sinking of their boat off Mirleft, in the south of the country, according to local media.

Twenty-four other migrants, including a minor, were rescued, the Hespress news site said on Friday evening citing anonymous sources in Mirleft, a coastal town in the south of the kingdom.

The death toll of 13 given by Hespress could still increase because eight other people are missing.

A total of 45 people were on board the makeshift boat heading for Las Palmas in Spain's Canary Islands.

They had paid sums ranging from 20,000 to 25,000 dirhams (between 1,800 and 2,200 euros), details this Arabic-speaking site.

It was not possible to confirm the sinking with the Moroccan authorities.

Barely entering the sea, the inflatable boat used during this operation "

was damaged and the victims found themselves in the middle of the waves

", indicates 2M, another information site.

According to Hespress, the boat collided with a rock and “

capsized, about 10 minutes after

” leaving the coast.

Located at the northwestern tip of Africa, Morocco is a transit country for many migrants, particularly sub-Saharans, who seek to reach Europe from its Atlantic or Mediterranean coasts.

According to a report by the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, more than 11,200 migrants have died or disappeared since 2018 trying to reach Spain, an average of six per day.

The route alone between the northwest coast of Africa and the Canary Islands accounts for 7,692 dead migrants, according to Caminando Fronteras.

Read alsoSpain: more than 250 migrants from Algeria arrived in the Balearic Islands since Christmas

From late 2019, the number of migrants attempting the clandestine crossing through the perilous Atlantic migration route surged as patrols in the Mediterranean intensified.

Since the beginning of 2022, 27,789 migrants have managed to reach Spain illegally (including 15,742 in the Canary Islands), according to figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, arrested on December 15.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-12-31

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