Eight Illegal Immigrants drown off Morocco: officials

September 20, 2009
At least eight people drowned Saturday when a small boat carrying dozens of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa sank off the coast of Morocco, security sources said.
Eleven people survived the accident, and Spanish and Moroccan helicopters and boats were searching for more off the island of Perejil, in Moroccan waters near Ceuta, a tiny Spanish enclave in north Africa.
"The bodies of seven women, one of whom was pregnant, and a man, all from the sub-Sahara region, were transfered to Tangiers on Saturday afternoon," one security source said.
The information was confirmed by an AFP journalist who saw the eight bodies in the morgue in Tangiers.
Spanish police had handed over the bodies along with 11 survivors -- seven men and four women -- to Moroccan authorities who took them by boat to Tangiers.
Four of the survivors were in a poor condition when they were rescued and were taken to hospital in Tangiers, the sources said.
Moroccan police said the accident occurred before dawn after the small zodiac-type boat set off for Spain from near the Moroccan village of Benyounech, which is surrounded by dense forest and overlooks the island of Perejil.
The security source said around 42 would-be illegal immigrants were crammed into the boat when it sank. Earlier reports had put the number at 60.
Dozens of boats carrying migrants from Africa hoping to begin new lives in Europe arrive on Spain's shores each year, most of them in the Canary Islands archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.
Authorities fear many of the thousands of Africans who attempt the perilous journey by boat to Spanish soil die each year of thirst, hunger or exposure, although there is no way of knowing the exact numbers.
In March 2006, a Spanish ship picked up the bodies of 25 African would-be immigrants in the Atlantic Ocean south of the Canary Islands.
Spain in recent years has established repatriation agreements with African countries that are a major source of migrants and boosted maritime surveillance in cooperation with other European nations.
During the first eight months of the year only 1,640 migrants reached the Canaries, a 69.4 percent drop over last year.
In March more than 220 people were dead or missing after a Europe-bound vessel from Libya sank. There have also been several fatal accidents involving migrants in recent years in the Gulf of Aden off east Africa.
© 2009 AFP