Eleven migrants have reportedly drowned after their boat sank off the Algerian coast of Tipaza as they attempted to reach Europe.
International Centre for the Identification of Missing Migrants CIPIMD, a Spanish NGO, said that a boat carrying 16 migrants had set sail from North Africa for Spain’s Balearic Islands.
“Eleven harragas (Arabic nickname for illegal migrants) who had set sail from Fouka (near Tipaza), died and five young people, including two children, were rescued,” the private television channel El-Hayet TV reported on its Facebook page.
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Photos of the victims have gone viral on social media. According to Algerian social media users, the victims hail from the town of Fouka, in the Tipaza prefecture, 70km west of Algiers.
They were in the water for 14 hours before being picked up by an Egyptian ship which handed them over to the Algerian authorities, according to Internet users.
According to a report published by the Ministry of Defence, the coastguards “foiled illegal emigration attempts and rescued 172 people on board homemade boats” between 4 and 11 May.
In 2021, 4,404 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea, the worst toll since 2015, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras.
Source: Africanews