Atlantic route: Dead and missing on crossing to Spain, merchant ships carry survivors to disputed territory of Western Sahara

ROME – The organization Walking Fronteras reports of two different shipwrecks that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean in which about seventy people were missing, including twelve children under the age of eight. Most of the survivors were taken to the port of El Aaiún, in Western Sahara, where they said they were subjected to violence by the Moroccan authorities.

The shipwrecks. Walking Fronteras tells of the first boat carrying 65 migrants on board, which ran aground on the North-Africa-Canary Islands route on February 10, killing 34 people including a child. On the same day, a second boat with 56 refugees on board sank shortly after leaving Cape Bojador, on the west coast of Western Sahara. The toll is 36 missing, including five children. On February 12, six people died on board a dinghy carrying twenty-nine. The boat sank south of Tenerife after sailing in bad weather for nine days from Morocco to the Canary Islands. On the same day, other small drifting boats were rescued. Two other boats carrying 98 people were alerted by merchant vessels underway.

The death toll. According to data provided by the association Walking Fronteras2,390 lives were lost in the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in 2022, including 288 women and 101 children all bound for Spain. In the last five years, however, 11,286 people have died on the border with Spain, including 1,272 women and 377 children. More than 200 boats are missing “with no one surviving to tell the story” writes the organization. Salvamento Maritimo, the Spanish maritime safety company, provided assistance to around 5,801 people during search and rescue operations at sea in Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla in 2022.

The repatriations. In the last two weeks, Madrid has resumed the repatriation of migrants to Senegal. At least thirty-one people were expelled from the Canary Islands and brought back to Dakar on two different flights. Both planes departed from Madrid with a stopover in the Canary Islands, local sources told El Diario newspaper. The Spanish Interior Ministry has been attempting to initiate repatriations to Senegal since December 2020, despite the pandemic. A first flight to deport people to Dakar had been set for February 24, 2021. Local organizations, through social networks, alerted migrants detained in reception centers that they risked expulsion and this caused many Senegalese to flee, who they did not want to go home after surviving the sea voyage.

Cooperation with Rabat. Meanwhile Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez went to Rabat last February to consolidate the “strategic partnership” for the management of migratory flows. Irregular arrivals from Morocco decreased by a quarter in 2022 compared to the previous year, even though the very serious incident that led to the death of many people in the Melilla enclave occurred in June.

The complaint of Alarm Phone. The organization said on February 1 that the Moroccan-Spanish summit, supported by the European Union, wants to speed up the pace of refoulements, resuming the pre-pandemic pace. The organization also notes that in its long experience of activism and monitoring migration routes to Europe, these strategies only increase the vulnerability of people on the move, leading to more abuse, more deaths and more violence.