A rubber dinghy carrying over 60 migrants capsized off the coast of Morocco, leading to fears that approximately 36 migrants have lost their lives. Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish NGO, reported that around 30 people were still missing, while Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service managed to rescue 24 individuals. The Associated Press confirmed that the bodies of a man and a child were recovered from the waters.
Helena Maleno Garzon, the head of Caminando Fronteras, criticized Europe’s border policy and described it as torture and death. She stated that the distressed boat had been seeking help for 12 hours in Spanish waters.
The Spanish Maritime Rescue received a distress call on Tuesday evening and immediately dispatched a plane to locate the boat. The vessel was found approximately 70 kilometers (44 miles) off the African coast and 160 kilometers south of the Canary Islands. The plane crew reported that the boat did not show immediate signs of sinking, and there is currently no available information on the time or cause of the sinking.
Morocco took charge of the rescue operation, and a nearby merchant ship responded to the alert issued by Morocco, assisting in rescuing the 24 survivors. The bodies of the child and the man were discovered separately on Wednesday, with the Spanish helicopter locating the child’s body and the merchant ship finding the man’s body.
Helena Maleno expressed concerns about the delay in providing assistance to the migrants, highlighting that they were left without help for 12 hours. She claimed that a total of 39 people, including four women and a baby, had died. However, these figures have not been officially confirmed.
This tragic incident follows another migrant boat tragedy within two days, where the body of a pregnant woman was found on a boat carrying over 40 individuals near the Canary Island of Lanzarote.
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