Monitoring Desk
RABAT: The bodies of 13 Moroccan citizens were recovered after their boat capsized and sank off the country’s southern coast while attempting to reach the Canary Islands of Spain, Moroccan media reported.
The boat carrying 45 passengers was attempting to reach the island’s main city of Las Palmas when it hit a rock and sank off the coast on Friday, “10 minutes after” embarking from near the Mirleft town, Hespress online news service reported.
A minor among twenty-four people was rescued from the water, and one woman’s body was among those recovered from the sea, the Hespress website reported. Eight of the boat’s passengers remain unaccounted for.
45 Moroccan citizens were on boarding the boat
Morocco’s 2M news service reported the passengers were on board in an inflatable boat which was quickly “destroyed, and the victims found themselves in the middle of the sea waves.”
Passage on the vessel had cost between $1,900 to $2,400 (20,000 and 25,000 Moroccan dirhams), the news website reported.
Located at the northwestern tip of Africa, Morocco is a transit state for several migrants, particularly sub-Saharans, seeking to travel to Europe from its Mediterranean or Atlantic coasts.
The route between the Canary Islands and Morocco alone accounted for 7,692 of these deaths.
Since late 2019, the number of Moroccan migrants attempting secret crossings along the perilous Atlantic migration route has increased as patrols in the Mediterranean escalated.
Interior ministry of Spain said on December 15 that 27,789 migrants had reached Spanish territory illegally this year, including 15,742 arrivals in the Canary Islands.
