Civil protection agents recovered one young man who was still alive, but he later died.
Meknes – Security services in Nador, northeastern Morocco, found on Wednesday the bodies of three would-be migrants and one man who was still alive in critical condition in a sewage canal.
Local authorities said the four tried to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla from the port station of Beni Ensar, Nador.
Civil protection agents managed to recover a young man from the sewage canal who was still alive. Morocco’s emergency services immediately transferred the man to Nador’s El Hassani provincial hospital to receive medical care, but he later died.
Authorities recovered the remains of the other three victims and placed them in a morgue.
Police opened an investigation under the supervision of the competent prosecution to determine the circumstances of this incident, the source added.
Morocco’s geographical location makes it a key point in irregular migratory flows from Africa to Europe. Moroccans migrate irregularly across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, and migrants from other African countries travel to Morocco as a transit point to reach Europe.
Morocco, however, has been improving its efforts to curb irregular migration and coordinate with Europe to stem irregular migratory flows. The North African country is a key partner of the European Union in terms of migration and security in the Mediterranean basin.
DGSN’s 2019 annual report stated that operations enabled security services to arrest 505 individuals for organizing irregular migration and dismantle 62 networks with links to trafficking people.
Morocco’s efforts against irregular migration led to the arrest of 27,317 would-be migrants, of which 20,141 were of foreign nationality.
According to DGSN’s statistics, Moroccans represented 26% of those arrested trying to migrate without documents.
Morocco’s government considers border security to be a shared responsibility among all countries. The North African country has long supported joint efforts with European states such as Spain to improve the management of the increasing border migration crisis in the region.
