At least 35 migrants are missing in border waters between Morocco and Spain, after a boat capsized. NGOs specializing in migration compare the figures for disappearances and deaths with those of the Spanish Coast Guard and blame Madrid and the European Union for acting negligently in preventing this type of tragedy. This new shipwreck comes just days after 82 migrants drowned off the Greek coast.
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A boat with migrants on board headed for the Canary Islands capsized on the Euro-African border near Morocco. Spain’s maritime rescue service said Moroccan authorities had rescued 24 people, while a Spanish helicopter had recovered one of the two bodies that had been located.
The number of missing and dead people is not clear. The Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras counts 60 people on the boat, of which 39 are reportedly missing.
Helena Maleno, director of Walking Borders, another organization specialized in migration, assumes the death of 39 missing migrants.
🔴 A new massacre in the Atlantic is confirmed with thirty-nine people dead, including four women and a baby. The pneumatics had been begging for a rescue in waters of Spanish responsibility for more than twelve hours.
— Helena Maleno Garzón (@HelenaMaleno) June 21, 2023
While ´Alarm Phone´, which provides Independent support for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to the European Union (EU) They calculate the number of people on board at 59 and missing at 35.
However, neither the Spanish Coast Guard nor the Moroccan authorities have confirmed how many people were on board the vessel or how many might be missing.
For now, the discovery of the body of a child that was recovered by the Spanish maritime rescue service and sent by helicopter to Gran Canaria has been confirmed, added a source from the Spanish Coast Guard. The operation was carried out after the Moroccan authorities requested help from Spain.
The Coast Guard later tweeted that a merchant ship, the Navios Azure, had found a second body, without elaborating.
Two victims of damaged pneumatics were located 40 miles from Blaya (Morocco), one by merchant Navios Azure and another by Helimer 202, which came this morning at the request of MRCC Rabat, which coordinates the emergency. A Moroccan patrol boat previously rescued 24 people pic.twitter.com/M0zKLMQqJc
— MARITIME RESCUE (@salvamentogob) June 21, 2023
For its part, the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior has not made any official communication about what happened.
Euro-African border, one of the deadliest migratory crossings in the world
The Canary Islands off the West African coast have become the main destination for migrants trying to reach Spain. At least 5,914 people arrived in the Canary Islands between January 1 and June 15 of this year, according to figures from the Spanish Government.
But according to some NGOs, more migrants die on this route. ´Walking borders´ assures that 11,286 people have died on the Spanish borders in the last five years and he blames the Spanish government and the European Union for strict immigration control policies.
And in the year 2022 alone, nearly 3,800 people have lost their lives on and from migration routes in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It is the highest figure since 2017 when 4,255 deaths were registered according to data recently released by the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP).
For the NGOs specialized in migration from Africa to Europe, one of the main causes of migratory tragedies in this step is the negligence of the authorities. They are based on maritime maps that the Spanish Government itself assumes as part of its territory.
1.5 million km2 is the area of responsibility for rescue (or SAR zone) assigned to Spain. This is equivalent to 3 times the national territory. pic.twitter.com/Fn5AZJdmbx
— MARITIME RESCUE (@salvamentogob) August 3, 2018
According to the Spanish Coast Guard, a large part of the waters of Western Sahara continue to be a rescue zone under the responsibility of Spain. Therefore, the Spanish Government should not delegate rescue coordination in those waters to Morocco.
The first months of summer are a critical time when migrants seek to cross into Europe, mostly through the Mediterranean Sea. A pregnant woman also died this week aboard a boat as she tried to reach Spain, the woman’s body was found on a boat carrying 42 men, seven women and three children near Lanzarote’s Atlantic coast.
On Monday, another migrant boat was sighted near Mogán, in Gran Canaria, with 53 people on board. Three of them had poor health condition.
Responsibility of the European Union in the deaths of migrants
The coast guards of France, Spain, Italy and Greece, European countries that receive the most irregular migration by sea, have been plagued by cases of negligence in helping migrants.
The NGO ‘Alarm Phone’ denounced negligence on the part of Greece in the most recent tragedy off its coast, which occurred on June 14 and in which 82 migrants drowned.
Apparently The Greek Coast Guard had already received alerts, since the day before the sinking, that the ship was in danger due to calls for help from the migrants on board.
Therefore, the Greek and other European authorities were well aware of this overcrowded and unseaworthy ship. However, a rescue operation was not launched until the vessel finally sank in the early hours of June 14.
The increase in immigration crossings It comes as the European Union is making very slow progress on an agreement to sign the migration and asylum pact launched by the Commission in September 2020 and which has been virtually blocked ever since.
With Reuters, EFE and local media
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