The Spanish NGO, Caminando Fronteras, specializing in the defense of migrants’ rights, announced this Thursday that up to 50 migrants drowned while trying to reach Spain aboard a boat from Africa. from the West.
According to this organization, based in Madrid and Navarre, the Moroccan authorities rescued, on Wednesday, 36 people who were on the boat that left the Mauritanian coast on January 2. This boat was carrying 86 migrants, 66 of whom were of Pakistani nationality.
In his latest report, Walking Borders highlighted that the year 2024 was marked by a tragic record, with 10,457 migrant deaths recorded during attempts to reach Spain, an average of 30 deaths per day. Most of these tragedies took place on the Atlantic route, taken by migrants coming from West African countries such as Mauritania and Senegal to reach the Canary Islands.
The same organization specified that it had alerted, six days before the sinking, the competent authorities of several countries about the missing boat. For his part, Alarm Phonean emergency service for migrants missing at sea, said it reported the situation to the Spanish maritime rescue service on January 12. However, the latter claimed to have no information on the boat in question.
Saddened by this news, Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands government, expressed his deep sorrow for the victims in a publication on X (formerly Twitter). He urged Spain and the European Union to “ act urgently to prevent further tragedies ”, adding: “ The Atlantic cannot continue to be the cemetery of Africa. They can no longer turn their backs on this humanitarian tragedy. My condolences for the death of the last fifty victims ».
https://x.com/FClavijoBatlle/status/1879806279734186193
Helena Maleno, executive director of Walking Bordersconfirmed that 44 of the victims were Pakistani. In a publication on Xshe wrote: “ They survived 13 days of agony at sea without anyone coming to rescue them ».
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