The irregular migrants were found onboard make-shift boats off the southern section of Morocco’s Atlantic coast.
52 women and 20 children were found in the boat, confirmed the same source.
The rescued migrants were in bad conditions. They received necessary first aid onboard the navy vessels. They were later handed over to the Royal Gendarmerie in Boujdour and Dakhla ports.
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The issue of irregular migration is a prominent topic of discussion in the Mediterranean as Morocco and its European partners cooperate to limit irregular migration in the region.
Since 2017, Morocco has disrupted over 14,000 irregular migration attempts.
Additionally, Moroccan authorities thwarted over 5,000 irregular migration networks and rescued over 80,500 migrants at sea.
In 2021 alone, Moroccan police dismantled 150 irregular migration networks. In the same year, security services arrested 12,231 irregular migrants and 415 suspects of human trafficking.
In November 2021, Morocco’s royal navy detained over 300 irregular migrants in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts.
In 2020, Moroccan police captured 466 individuals suspected to be part of 123 human trafficking networks.
Yearly, thousands of Moroccan and sub-Saharan migrants risk their lives to reach Europe by sea using unsafe make-shift boats in what has become the most dangerous border on earth. Unfortunate migrants often resort to human traffickers due to the lack of legal migration options, unemployment, among other socio-economic factors.
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