16 passengers from the 78-person vessel are still missing.
Rabat – The global migration crisis claimed at least four more lives today, November 27 after a rubber patera, or dingy, capsized 50 kilometers north of Moroccan shores in the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Spanish coast guard rescued several dozen people, including three children, after receiving an alert from an NGO.
The boat left the Moroccan beach of Charrana and was on its way to Spain when the tragedy occurred.
The Spanish coast guard brought the surviving passengers to Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, along with the bodies of three people who died during the journey. A fourth person died shortly after arriving at the port.
16 passengers from the 78-person vessel are still missing, the Spanish coast guard reported. A boat and two planes are currently conducting a search for the missing migrants.
Nearly 80,000 migrants reached Europe via the Mediterranean in 2019, with more than 27,000 arriving in Spain. Well over a thousand people have died during migration attempts from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe this year.
