(Rabat) The Moroccan navy recovered three bodies of migrants and rescued 189 others, all Senegalese, while they were on board two boats “in difficulty” off the coast of Dakhla, in Western Sahara, a source said on Tuesday military.
“Units of the royal navy and coastal surveillance elements provided assistance, Monday during two separate operations, to two canoes in difficulty south of Dakhla with on board 189 Senegalese candidates for irregular migration, including 18 women and 29 minors, as well as 3 corpses,” a military source told the Moroccan news agency MAP.
The two boats “which set sail respectively on October 2 and 17, 2023 from the Senegalese coast, intended to go to the Canary Islands,” said the same source.
The three remains were transferred to the morgue of a hospital in Dakhla while the rescued migrants received the necessary care before being handed over to the gendarmerie for the usual administrative procedures.
The Canary Islands migration route, the gateway to Europe in the Atlantic Ocean, is experiencing a marked increase in activity from the coasts of northwest Africa.
Other crossing attempts, just as perilous, are coming from the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara, a territory 80% controlled by the kingdom.
More than 23,500 migrants reached the archipelago between 1er January and October 15, almost 80% more than the same period last year, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.
During the first two weeks of October, 8,561 migrants arrived, a record number according to Spanish media since a previous migration crisis in 2006.
This “resurgence” of arrivals is linked to “destabilization in the Sahel,” said the Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, during a visit to the Canaries last week.