Eight migrants die at sea in 24-hour period while attempting to reach Spain

The bodies of eight migrants were found in a 24-hour period in December off the coast of Spain. They are among more than 1,200 migrants who have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean this year while attempting to reach Europe through irregular routes, IOM figures show.

The most recently deceased migrant was found on a boat on 17 December after the group was spotted off the coast of Andalusia, Spain. Forty-seven migrants were rescued from the boat before dawn and taken to the port of Motril, according to the spokesperson of Spain’s police force.

Just prior to that, seven migrants were confirmed dead when a boat carrying around 100 people capsized in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Seventy migrants were rescued, including 10 women and a baby, who were in a “very poor state,” according to a source in the Moroccan military. Twenty-four migrants from this boat are still missing. 

Thousands of irregular migrants attempting to reach Europe at any cost have recently started to take the Moroccan-Spanish route in the Western Mediterranean Sea as an alternative to the Libyan-Italian route in the Central Mediterranean Sea.

Over 100,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea in 2019, including almost 25,000 arrivals in Spain, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

TMP 26/12/2019

Photo credit: De Visu / Shutterstock

Photo caption: KOS, GREECE – SEP 28, 2015: Life Jackets discarded on a beach. Kos island is located just 4 kilometers from the Turkish coast and refugees come from Turkey in an inflatable boat.