At least two migrants died and 35 more were feared dead after an inflatable boat en route to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off northwestern Africa, sank on Wednesday, according to the Spanish authorities and an aid group. Carmen Lorente Sánchez, a spokeswoman for Maritime Rescue, Spain’s sea search-and-rescue agency, said “the lifeless body of a minor” and “the corpse of a man” had been found. She added that rescue operations coordinated by the Moroccan authorities had saved 24 people. But the toll was expected to rise since the boat carried 61 people, according to Caminando Fronteras, a nongovernmental organization that tracks the deaths of migrants. The inflatable vessel en route to the Canary Islands sank just days after as many as 650 migrants drowned when an overloaded fishing boat capsized off Greece a week ago.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 22, 2023 16:02 UTC