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Rabat – A 24-year-old Moroccan died while he was trying to fulfill his dream and reach Europe irregularly.
The young man, named Soufiane, hid in the wheel well of a truck on January 15 in the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Soufiane hoped to get on one of the ships traveling from Melilla to Spain.
Soufiane’s brother told Spanish news outlet Publico that one of his siblings went to finish the process of repatriating the body back to Morocco. He said it would be expensive.
Publico said that the family had to pay about €3,500.
Soufiane’s family buried him in Fez on January 28.
Quoted by the Spanish news outlet Hamza, Soufiane’s brother said of his family, “We did not imagine” that Soufiane was risking his life. “We thought he was in Melilla working, that was what he told us.”
Read Also: Morocco Thwarted 88,761 Irregular Migration Attempts in 2018
Growing up in Fez along with three other siblings, Soufiane had been working as a barber in Morocco.
According to Publico, as many as three young Maghrebis have died in the port of Melilla, including Soufiane, since 2017.
Morocco and Spain have experience increased irregular migration attempts in the last year, prompting them to cooperate more to strengthen security monitoring at the border.
Moroccan security services thwarted 88,761 irregular migration attempts in 2018.
Nearly 80 percent of the migrants were non-Moroccans.On December 30, 2018, the Spanish Civil Guard found two underage sub-Saharan African migrants inside two mattresses mounted on top of a vehicle crossing from Morocco into Melilla.
