2023-08-14 10:20:39
A Moroccan coastal surveillance unit on Saturday intercepted a boat carrying 130 illegal Senegalese migrants that ran aground near Dakhla, Western Sahara, a Moroccan military source reported on Sunday.
Members “a coastal surveillance unit intercepted on Saturday at the coast of the city of Dakhla a canoe which ran aground with on board 130 Senegalese candidates for irregular migration, including a woman”specified the source quoted by the Moroccan press agency MAP.
“This canoe set sail from the locality of Fass Boye, near Thiès, in Senegal and intended to reach the Canary Islands” in Spain, the same source added.
Friday, near 70 sub-Saharan migrants had been rescued by the Moroccan navy when their boat was in difficulty off the coast of Tarfaya (south of the kingdom). These migrantsincluding a woman and three minors, had been brought back to Laayoune, port of Sahara occidental.
On August 8, the Moroccan coast guard had already intercepted 56 candidates for illegal emigration off the coast of Tan-Tan, in the south of Morocco.
The day before, five corpses of Senegalese had been fished out off the coast of Guerguerat (Western Sahara), while the Moroccan navy had rescued 189 other migrants whose boat had capsized. Migrants are generally repatriated to Senegal.
At least 13 Senegalese died in mid-July in the shipwreck from their canoe off the Moroccan coast, according to local Senegalese authorities.
The Canarian migratory routethe gateway to Europe in the Atlantic Ocean, has experienced a sharp upturn in activity in recent weeks, particularly from the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara.
NGOs regularly report deadly shipwrecks – the unofficial tolls of which, according to them, amount to tens, if not hundreds of deaths – in Moroccan, Spanish or international waters.
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