Spain: 4,000 deaths in dinghies in five years.
01 August 2002
According to the Asociación de Trabajadores e Inmigrantes Marroquíes en España (ATIME, Association of Moroccan Workers and Immigrants in Spain), between 1997 and July 2001 a total of 3,932 immigrants, the majority Moroccan or of sub-Saharan origins, have disappeared or died in the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar and of the Canary Islands as they tried to reach the Spanish coast in dinghies. In the first six months of this year, and only counting information concerning the Spanish coast, 18 immigrants have died and 14 have disappeared in six known shipwrecks. This information, provided by the AITME on 1 August, was confirmed only a day later when the bodies of 13 drowned immigrants (five from Maghreb countries and eight sub-Saharans) were found in Tarifa (Cádiz). El Pais also recently reported that six sub-Saharan women and three men, one of whom was Moroccan, died in a dinghy shipwreck near the Spanish coast of Barbate (Cádiz) on 8 October. Forty-two people were reportedly crossing the Gibraltar Strait in the vessel, 28 of whom were saved in a coordinated rescue attempt involving helicopters, launches and divers, with a further five missing, presumed dead. The large percentage of women and children can be seen from the following figures: on 8 August 70 immigrants were intercepted in front of the Tarifa coast as they travelled in a dinghy. There were 29 women on board, 11 of whom were pregnant and another that was only 12 years old.