Earlier this month, Mali’s Minister for Malians Living Abroad reported that nearly 70 refugees perished when their boat capsized while trying to reach Spain. A migrant ship bound for Spain was reported in a media release on December 19 when Mossa Ag Attaher revealed in a press release on Thursday that it sank. The workers in this ship “numbered 80 at the start, with only 11 individuals”, according to the Ministry.
The secretary added that “25 young Malians have regrettably been publicly identified among the victims” and that nine Malians have been publicly identified among the survivors.
One of the most fatal routes in the world leads from West Africa to the Canary Islands, where workers travel by air. The island is viewed by most as a move toward western Europe, being closer to Africa than mainland Spain. Many of those making the journey come from Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, and other East African countries, seeking better work opportunities overseas or fleeing violence and social instability.
According to Doulaye Keita, a government director, in a speech to the AP on Friday, several of the Moroccan victims were from the Kayes place in the west of the nation.
” Among the 25 Malians dying, there are 8 Malians from my commune”, Mamadou Siby, the president of the village of Marena in the Kayes area, told The Associated Press.
These young men who were killed left my communal seven months ago to operate in Mauritania’s development sector. However, they were in contact with their buddies in Europe and America, who encouraged them to come to these countries, and in most cases, they took the perilous journey without yet informing their people back place”.
