2023-08-07 21:20:38
The Moroccan navy rescued five bodies of migrants, all Senegalese, and rescued 189 others whose boat capsized on Saturday off Guerguerat, Western Sahara, a military source said on Monday. The five lifeless bodies and 11 migrants in “critical condition” were transferred to a hospital in Dakhla, Western Sahara, a military source told Moroccan news agency MAP.
The migrant boat had left illegally “from a country located south of the Kingdom”, trying to reach the Canary Islands (Spain), before being intercepted off Guerguart in “difficult situation”, specifies the same source. The rescued migrants, including a woman, were transported to the port of Dakhla on Sunday, so that the Moroccan gendarmerie “can carry out the administrative procedures in force”, underlines the Moroccan military source.
The dangerous migratory route of the Canary Islands
At least 13 Senegalese migrants died in mid-July when their canoe sank off the Moroccan coast. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) announced on July 25 that five Moroccan migrants had died in a shipwreck off the coast of Western Sahara.
The migratory route of the Canary Islands, gateway to Europe in the Atlantic Ocean, has experienced a marked upsurge in activity in recent weeks from the coasts of north-west Africa. Other attempts at crossings, just as perilous, start from the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara.
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