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Rabat- Family and friends of Hayat, the young woman who died from navy gunfire while on a migrant speedboat, said their last goodbyes at her funeral on Wednesday.
Hayat Belkacem, a 20-year-old woman received a deadly gunshot while aboard a Spanish go-fast boat trying to cross the Mediterranean, somewhere between M’diq and Fnideq on Tuesday.
News of Hayat’s tragic death shook her neighborhood, Jebel Dersa, in Tetouan, and infused indignation in many Moroccans who condemned the Moroccan navy’s action.
Videos posted by Moroccan media show the sorrowful atmosphere of Hayat’s funeral. Crowds of people, friends, family, and neighbors cried as they gathered around her house, consoling each other in shared sadness.
Many of the people repeated, amid hysterical cries, “What did she do to deserve death?” and “May God avenge the person who killed Hayat.”
In an interview with Moroccan news outlet Hespress, Hayat’s mother wept and said that her daughter’s dream was to migrate and find a job to support her family.
Hayat’s mother said that she sacrificed her education and dropped out of college, Abdelmalek Essaadi University of Law, to save her family from poverty.
“She left at six in the morning; she said farewell to me and told me, ‘Pray for me.’… If only [the shooter] brought her back to me instead of killing her.”
Hayat’s parents say they are in a dire financial situation, raising five children, including Hayat.
Hayat’s father told the press that he did not know of his daughter’s plan to migrate to Spain until he received the news about her death on Tuesday night. He called on the government to compensate their family for Hayat’s death.
Three other Moroccans on the boat, Lahabib (26), Hamza (25), and Mouad (32), were wounded by the gunfire. They are currently being hospitalized in M’diq-Fnideq prefecture.
The shooting of a migrant boat, controlled by a Spanish national, also sparked the anger of Prince Moulay Hicham, a first cousin of King Mohammed VI. He took to his Twitter to convey his concern about the “social crisis.”
“The incident, that cost the life of at least one Moroccan woman among the candidates for undocumented immigration in the waters of M’diq-Fnideq is tragic. This is a new facet of [Morocco’s] social crisis,” the prince wrote.
He added, “We are witnessing a protest that goes from land to sea.”
For the prince, “Border protection is a national duty, and without a doubt, the Royal Navy has respected the laws in force, but this is a military intervention in a protest action. In the past there has never been such an armed intervention against an illegal boat. Why this time?”
Read Also: Prince Moulay Hicham Condemns Navy Fire on Migrants in Mediterranean
Lately, Morocco has employed stricter methods of combating irregular migration to Europe, especially in the north.
Police also blocked hundreds of Moroccans trying to leave for Europe from a beach in Martil, near Tetouan, on Saturday night, September 22, which led to protests calling for “free immigration.”
