The Moroccan navy says it rescued more than 800 migrants and recovered one body over the course of the past week.
Attempts by migrants to cross to Spain -- either via the Mediterranean to mainland Spain or the Atlantic to the Canary Islands -- have increased in recent days.
The Moroccan navy rescued 845 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, between July 10 and July 17, the Moroccan state news agency MAP reported Tuesday (July 18), citing a military source.
Also read: Nearly 1,000 migrants died on Africa-Spain routes
Around half of the rescues took place in waters off southern Morocco. During one of the operations, a body was also recovered, reported the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP).
The organization Alarm Phone, which monitors migrants' journeys towards Europe, tweeted on Tuesday (July 18) they had "learned that 24 people died in a shipwreck off Western Sahara," a disputed territory that borders Morocco and was annexed by the country in 1975.
Attempts to reach Europe
Alarm Phone added that according to their information, the boat was carrying "61 people and had capsized" on July 16. The organization said "37 people survived and were transferred to hospital in Dakhla," a town in the Moroccan-administered part of Western Sahara.
This information has not been confirmed by Moroccan authorities, reported AFP.
Moroccan authorities claim to have prevented 26,000 attempts to migrate towards Europe during the first five months of 2023 and 71,000 attempts in 2022. Some migrants try several times before eventually crossing, so this is not necessarily the number of different people attempting to leave.
Also read: Spanish prosecutor opens investigation into deaths of 39 migrants
According to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, in figures last updated on July 9, 7,529 people have arrived on the Canary Islands so far this year, and 3,921 in mainland Spain.
In addition, 481 migrants reached the Balearic islands, including Mallorca, Minorca and Ibiza; 846 arrived at Spain’s eastern mainland coast; 527 entered the Spanish enclave Ceuta and 185 reached the nearby Spanish enclave of Melilla, both on the continent of Africa.
With AFP