Another boat of migrants trying to get to Europe has crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. At least 35 deaths are expected in the accident.
About 60 migrants were on board the lightweight inflatable boat, which was trying to reach the Spanish island of Canaries in the Atlantic Ocean, when the accident occurred on Tuesday morning.
According to the British newspaper Guardian, the Spanish NGO says that 60 people were on board the boat, of which 39 are missing. According to another NGO working for refugees, there were 59 people on board, of which 35 are missing. Spain’s maritime rescue service says Moroccan authorities have rescued 24 people, while a Spanish helicopter has transferred the body of a child to a Spanish airport.
“We don’t know the final number of people missing, but there were at least 60 people on board,” said a spokeswoman for the Spanish Maritime Rescue Service. “It ran into trouble seven miles off the east coast of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands on Wednesday morning,” he said. 51 people were rescued from another boat.
Two NGOs working for refugees accused the Spanish and Moroccan authorities of failing to act quickly enough to help those on the boat.
“60 people, including six women and a child, waited for help for more than 12 hours on an unstable boat that was in danger of sinking at any moment,” said Walking Borders head Helena Malino.
Another non-governmental organization, Alarmphone, raised the question in its tweet that “Accident to a boat in the Atlantic Ocean!” We learned that of the 59 people who drowned in the boat accident, only 24 people were rescued by the Moroccan Navy, at least 35 people are still missing. Why didn’t anyone intervene earlier?”
Alarmphone tweeted: “Shipwreck in the Atlantic! We learned that only 24 of the 59 people on board the ship were intercepted by the Moroccan Navy. At least 35 people are still missing. Why didn’t you intervene?”
It should be noted that over 500 people, including a large number of Pakistanis, are still missing as a result of a boat carrying 750 migrants sinking off the southern coast of Koyunan last week on June 14. So far, the bodies of 80 people have been found in the incident. According to estimates, there were at least 300 Pakistanis including women and children in the boat, out of which 12 were rescued.