At least 44 migrants were drowned when the boat they were aboard Sunday off the western Sahara in southern Morocco sank, the Spanish non-governmental organization Caminando Fronteras announced.
The deadly shipwreck has not yet been confirmed by the Moroccan authorities.
According to Elena Maleno, the founder of Caminando Fronteras, the shipwreck took place off Cape Buzdur in Western Sahara.
“Seven bodies were taken to the morgue,” but the other victims have not been retrieved from the sea, he said via Twitter.
Twelve other migrants who survived were arrested by Moroccan authorities, according to Ms. Maleno.
He did not specify what the destination of the boat was; however, boats carrying migrants departing from this area generally head for the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands.
At the northwestern tip of Africa, the Kingdom of Morocco is a transit country for refugees and migrants trying to reach Europe, either from the Atlantic or from the Mediterranean.
According to Moroccan Interior Ministry figures, during the first quarter of 2022 more than 14,700 attempts to smuggle migrants were thwarted and 52 trafficking rings were dismantled in Morocco.
In 2021, at least 4,404 migrants died or went missing trying to reach Spain by sea, the worst number since 2015, according to Caminando Fronteras, which relies on migrant or relative phone calls to its emergency numbers.
According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, more than 40,000 migrants, most of whom left Morocco, arrived in 2021 by sea in the country, as well as in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
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