49 African immigrants feared dead after their boat sank in Mediterranean
About 49 African migrants are feared to have drowned following the rescue of three men from a dinghy 28 nautical miles north of the Island of Alboran in the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Morocco, Spanish coastguard said.
Their rubber boat capsized on Tuesday that is believed to have left Morocco with 52 people aboard.
The “half-sunk” boat was spotted around 50km southwest of Spain’s Alboran Island, which lies in the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean.
A charity based in Morocco had informed of the departure of the boat at around 8 a.m. local time on Sunday, provoking an intensive search in which five aircraft participated.
Rescue workers were searching for survivors in the water near the Spanish island.
The three rescued men, aged 17 to 25 from sub-Saharan Africa, “explained that more than 50 people were on board the rubber boat which had been drifting for several days after leaving the northern coast of Morocco”, the coastguards said in a statement.
6,464 people reached Spain after crossing the Mediterranean between January 1 and June 25 this year, according to the UN’s migration agency.
