Rabat- While firing on a migrant boat trying to cross the Mediterranean between M’diq and Fnideq, the Moroccan navy killed one of the migrants, a 20-year-old woman.
The young woman, identified as “Hayat B,” reportedly died at the scene after she took a deadly shot while aboard a Spanish go-fast boat. The boat was controlled by a Spanish national.
Moroccan electronic news outlets based in the north, Chamal Post, reported that the woman had lived in the Jebel Dersa neighborhood in Tetouan and attended the Abdelmalek Essaadi University of Law campus in Martil, a town on the Mediterranean.
Three other Moroccans on the boat, named as Lahabib (26), Hamza (25), and Mouad (32),were also wounded in navy gunfire and are currently being hospitalized in M’diq-Fnideq prefecture.
Chamal Post reported that a “special source” from Moroccan authorities said the migrant boat did not respond to the navy’s warnings, so the navy resorted to gunfire. The incident is the first known time that the Moroccan navy has fired at a migrant boat.
Authorities justified the navy, saying the migrants were not “clearly visible,” and that the Spanish helmsman was arrested, pending an investigation.
Lately, Morocco has become strict with attempts at irregular migration to Europe, especially in the north.
Moroccan maritime police stopped hundreds of Moroccans trying to escape for Europe from a beach in Martil on Saturday night, September 22.
A video of the incident shows migrants franticly making their way back to the shore to escape police.
Disappointed, many Moroccans wishing to migrate protested that night, chanting the slogan: “The people want free herga [irregular migration]!”
Police have also deployed security barriers at the entrances to northern cities like Tangier and Tetouan to stop migrants from leaving for Europe.
According to a statement from Morocco’s National Observatory for Human Rights (ONDH) on Monday, security services in Tangier and other northern cities and towns like Martil have arrested young Moroccans and sub-Saharans trying to escape to Europe.
They then transported the migrants back to their home cities under strict supervision.
“Hundreds of young people in Martil flood to the town’s shores with the hope of migrating irregularly across the Mediterranean,” ONDH emphasized.
Moroccans account for 13 percent of the undocumented migrants who attempted to reach Europe in 2018 (7,100 Moroccans).
The Spanish Ministry of Interior indicated that more than 250,000 undocumented Moroccans are currently living in Spain, with close to 5,000 identified as “unaccompanied minors.”
