A Moroccan coastal surveillance unit intercepted on Saturday August 12 a boat carrying 130 illegal Senegalese migrants which ran aground near Dakhla, in Western Sahara, a Moroccan military source reported on Sunday.
This operation brings to at least 253 the number of candidates for irregular migration from sub-Saharan Africa who have landed on the Moroccan coast since August 8, according to an AFP report compiled from Moroccan military sources.
Members “of 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 quoted source. by the Moroccan press agency MAP. “This canoe set sail from the town of Fass Boye, north of Thiès, Senegal, and intended to reach the Canary Islands” in Spain, the same source added.
Deadly shipwrecks
On Friday, nearly 70 sub-Saharan migrants were rescued by the Moroccan navy when their boat was in trouble off Tarfaya (south of the kingdom). These migrants, including a woman and three minors, had been brought back to Laayoune, a port in Western Sahara.
On August 8, the Moroccan coast guard had already intercepted 56 candidates for illegal emigration off Tan-Tan, in southern Morocco. The day before, 5 corpses of Senegalese had been recovered off 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 sinking of their canoe off the coast of Morocco, according to local Senegalese authorities.
The migratory route of the Canary Islands, gateway to Europe in the Atlantic Ocean, has seen a marked increase in activity in recent weeks, particularly from the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara.
NGOs regularly report deadly shipwrecks – whose unofficial tolls, according to them, amount to tens, if not hundreds of deaths – in Moroccan, Spanish or international waters.
