A new shipwreck on the Canary Islands immigration route has left 14 dead in the last few hours in a zodiac that left the coast of Aaiún this morning with 58 people and that is sinking about 55 kilometers from the Sahara and about 150 miles to the south. of Gran Canaria, in international waters. At least seven women are traveling on it, one nine months pregnant and two babies.
The NGO Caminando Fronteras received the first notice at 2 p.m. and although from the first moment it gave the position to the Spanish and Moroccan authorities to intervene and rescue the immigrants, until now no one is acting in the area.
This is indicated by the founder of this NGO, Helena Maleno, who denounces the passivity of the two countries. “Fourteen dead already in the shipwreck of an inflatable boat on the Canary Islands route and perhaps they will all die because Spain and Morocco are not capable of coordinating to save lives,” Maleno denounces on social networks, who wonders what would happen if the boat were Europeans instead of immigrants. “They are people but here racism is evident,” she denounces.
Maleno, who has been in contact at all times with the occupants of the boat, indicates that one of the last calls he has received was from a nine-month pregnant woman who was already in the water and clinging to a piece of the inflatable “We are here, Helena. I'm on the float. All the boys in the middle have disappeared,” the woman tells him, who assures him that until that moment she has not seen the Moroccan Navy.
“They have been asking for help for hours, neither Morocco nor Spain have yet activated the necessary means to save lives,” Maleno denounces.
The founder of the NGO denounces the blackmail relations that Spain and Morocco maintain and that prevents either country from activating the rescue of these people. Maleno has announced that on January 9 they will publish the figures of the people who lost their lives in 2023 and that they are chilling. Between 2018 and 2022, six people have died every day on the Spanish borders, of which 1,272 were women and 377 were children. According to Caminando Fronteras, 241 boats disappeared with all the people on board without anyone surviving to tell the tale “We are talking about people. The Canary Islands route totals 7,692 deaths.
A similar situation already occurred in June. Morocco's lack of attention caused 37 people to die on a boat carrying 61 people. Two children and a baby died along with 34 other people. On that occasion, Spain delegated the rescue to Morocco, which arrived at the scene 17 hours after the first distress call. When they arrived it was already late.
Maleno fears that the same situation will occur again and the immigrants will die in their entirety without being helped.
