The attempted journey to cross into Europe ended with the deaths of six migrants, including a mother and her baby.
Rabat – Six Moroccan migrants died in an attempt to cross Morocco’s southern coast in Sidi Ifni to the Canary Islands on Thursday, June 27.
Moroccan television channel Al Oula reported that several others were rescued after their boat sank.
The list of deceased migrants includes one woman and her baby.
The state television channel added that one of the rescued migrants remains in a critical condition.
This most recent attempt to cross the Mediterranean, which ended in tragedy, is not the first of its kind. In the first months of 2019, hundreds of boats have already been rescued or lost in an attempt to reach Europe.
Faced with the increasing pressure of irregular migration, Moroccan law enforcement have thwarted more than 30,000 irregular migration attempts in 2019.
The number represents half of the irregular migration attempts aborted in 2018 (88,761 foiled attempts in 2018).
Spokesperson of the Moroccan government Mustapha El Khalfi said in May that Morocco’s strategy in handling the issue is based on a “humanitarian approach.”
He noted that the Royal Navy has intensified its rescue operations of irregular migrants, and, at the same time, “Morocco is implementing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration adopted last December [2018] in Marrakech.”
