Seven migrant women died at sea during an intervention by the Spanish Civil Guard and Moroccan Gendarmerie. Spain's Podemos Party is calling for a parliamentary hearing of government ministers to shed light on circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
Seven migrant women died after the boat they were traveling on overturned off the coast of the Spanish enclave of Melilla during an alleged immediate transfer of the migrants by the Spanish Civil Guard to the Moroccan Gendarmerie. The incident took place during the night between Thursday, August 31 and Friday, September 1 at the edge of Spanish and Moroccan territorial waters with the boat carrying about 40 migrants from the Congo and Guinea.
The parliamentary group for Spanish political party Podemos, along with affiliated coalitions En Comú Podem and En Marea, has called for a hearing in the Lower House with the interior minister, the secretary of state for security, and the general director of the Civil Guard, for an explanation on the tragedy.
There are two differing versions of the story. According to a statement released by Podemos, an activist from the NGO Walking Borders-Caminando Fronteras sounded the alarm over the incident on Twitter on Thursday evening. The NGO said 45 people were on the boat and survivors said it was intercepted by the Spanish Civil Guard in the area of Aguardú at the edge of territorial waters. They said Spanish authorities stopped the boat there to wait for the arrival of the Moroccan Gendarmerie to escort the migrants to the Moroccan coast. "This practice is fairly routine, as the Spanish Interior Minister has also said, as a tool for migrant control", together with land transfers it is known as 'devolución en caliente' and included in the reform of the Law on Foreigners," Podemos said. Survivors said when the Spanish Civil Guard boarded the boat,
27 migrants jumped into the water to swim to the nearby coast of Melilla. They said the Spanish Civil Guard rescued some of them, and said the Moroccan Navy used a rope to tie the boat, which was in precarious condition and still carrying eight women. The Melilla Prefecture said there were 30 migrants traveling on the boat, and it confirmed that the Spanish Civil Guard rescued 13 migrants who had jumped into the water to escape authorities at the border. They said the migrants were then transfered to the autonomous city's port and from there, to the local temporary migrant detention centre (CETI). According to the prefecture, Moroccan authorities "took charge of the other people" who had remained on the boat. "The bodies of the eight women who died in the shipwreck are at the nearby town's morgue," said Caminando Fronteras spokeswoman Helena Melero. She said blocking migrant boats on the high seas is "the greatest risk" migrants face in their attempts to reach Melilla and Ceuta, the Spanish enclaves in North Africa. The picture shows some sub-Saharan immigrants on board a Moroccan security forces boat after they were intercepted by Spanish authorities off Melilla coast. (archive).