A boat with 86 migrants on board has sunk into Moroccan waters when travelling to the Canary Islands, according to police reports. Moroccan coastguards have recovered a total of 22 bodies: 21 women and a two-year-old girl. At the moment, no other cadavers have been found in the area.

As reported by the Human Rights Defender, Helena Maleno, of the 86 people on board the boat, 36 were women and thirteen were minors. Most of them were from Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire. In order to denounce the high number of women who lose their lives at the borders, Maleno has stressed that the two-year-old who has died was born in Nador, Morocco, where his mother emigrated when she was pregnant while fleeing her home country.

Repetitive Accident

Maleno is part of the collective Walking Borders in defense of the rights of migrants. According to the group, in 2021 more than 2,000 people have died or disappeared on their way to the Canary Islands. On Sunday, it was reported that a boat had been found that had been lost at sea for twelve days, in which 29 of the 55 people were said to have died. The boat, in which eight children were travelling, was overcome by only one of the crews who managed to survive.