2023-06-21 22:52:14
More than 30 people are believed to have died following the sinking of a rubber dinghy en route to the Canary Islands on Wednesday. So far, neither the Spanish nor the Moroccan authorities have given concrete information on how many people were on board the boat or how many may still be missing. NGOs criticized Spain and Morocco for not intervening earlier.
Walking Borders and Alarm Phone groups said the dinghy originally had about 60 people on board. The Spanish Sea Rescue Service confirmed the deaths of two occupants of the dinghy, a child and an adult man, and reported that a Moroccan patrol boat had previously rescued 24 people.
Walking Borders spokeswoman Helena Maleno tweeted that 39 people had drowned, without giving further details. Alarm Phone, which runs a trans-European rescue support network, said 35 people were missing.
The tragedy drew criticism from activists who accused Spain of neglecting its duty of care as the dinghy was in the country’s search and rescue area under international law. That would mean that Madrid should have led the operation instead of Rabat.
At the time of the sinking, the dinghy was in the waters off the coast of Western Sahara. Spanish state news agency EFE reported that a Spanish rescue ship, the Guardamar Caliope, was just 46 km – about an hour’s journey – from the dinghy on Tuesday evening.
The Guardamar Caliope did not provide any help to the dinghy, as the operation was taken over by the Moroccan rescue control center in Rabat. They sent a patrol boat, which only arrived on Wednesday morning, about ten hours after it was spotted by a Spanish rescue plane.
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