The start of the year is leaving us tragic numbers of corpses by drowning between Africa and Europe. That unfortunately is not new (there are deaths or disappearances every four hours on the southern border) but the way migrants try to step on the ‘old continent’. So far from 2025 six bodies have been found in different coastal areas of Ceuta, dragged by the sea, with neoprene costumes and feet fins. A fairly new form, especially in recent times among those who risk their lives to leave behind their country of origin and that, according to Ana Rosado, coordinator of the Southern Border Report of the Human Rights Association (APDHA), “dismantles the speech of the mafias or of the organized bands that prevails among the citizens and that serves mainly to criminalize the immigrant ”.
“There is a lot of self -organization for this type of crossing, shorter, but also mortal,” the specialist tells eldiario.es Andalucía. The closure of the borders to the sub -Saharan persons by the government of Morocco does not prevent the Moroccans themselves or the Algerians from “launched into the water by this route”, that is, bordering the border spigone to swim to reach the autonomous city of Ceuta. There were at least 27 corpses and another 28 disappearances in all 2024, according to the aforementioned APDHA report.
The Ministry of Interior accounts for them as lands by land, as well as jumping the fence, “but they really enter the sea.” “Before it was more common to find the bodies from shipwrecks, but now the trend in this area is another”, since many people in Morocco move to Algeria or try to access European territory swim Ceuta, with the costs that this has for human lives as you are seeing. The number of irregular entries of migrants to Ceuta so far this year is 89 and most of them crossed during the first half of January, according to the last update of the Ministry of Interior.
90% less boats
The tickets to Ceuta and Melilla were reduced last year compared to 2023 at 90% respectively: compared to the 285 people who did it last year in Ceuta, 28 people have entered 7 vessels in 2024, and compared to 206 that They did it in Melilla in 2023, 21 people in 8 vessels have done so in this last year. “In fact, the Sub -Saharan are ‘banned’ to buy vessels in Morocco” and, among other things, they had long chosen the Canarian route, the deadliest: more than 75% of people who have lost their lives or missing in 2024 That route.
Here nobody forces you to get into a boat. Here are kids who take a surfboard, a hydropedal or put a neoprene, and they are thrown into the sea
According to the expert ‘arguments, the resurgence of repression and control of people of a certain ethnic profile in northern Morocco has especially done for five years, has made the migrant profile changed in this area. “But we are not talking about people traffic here. Here nobody forces you to get into a boat. There are kids who take a surfboard, a hydropedal or put a neoprene, and take the sea, ”explains Rosado.
The migration expert points out another fact: “In the provinces where arrivals have increased, the discourse of criminalization charges more strength and media interest for accusing people traffic of people to the alleged pattern of vessels, to which the brown endorsed, It is proportional to the condemnations for agreements in accordance with it. ”
Algeciras welcomes: “They will always look for a door”
Those swimming exits “are acts of courage against the attempted violation of the human right to circulate freely,” says María Ángeles Benítez, president of Algeciras Homes, who believes that “we cannot forget that these deaths are responsible and are the ones who hold the political power in Europe and in countries of origin, which are the people who must take care of measures to safeguard the lives of those who seek a decent future, creating safe and legal ways. ”
“Safeguarding human life is the obligation of states and the necessary human and technical resources have to be made available to it,” adds Benítez, who laments in any case that the deaths of people trying to reach Europe “will continue to increase while These migratory necropolitics continue that prioritize the control of borders and not the right to life. ”
“We also think that they are a form of regulation of failed and murderous migrations, since these controls will not deter people from moving forward with their migratory projects” since “they will always look for a door, a way to get out of leaving His country, ”says the president.
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