05.11.2012. On the night of Sunday the 28th October
2012 at least 14 people drowned in the Straits of Gibraltar between Tangiers,
Morocco and Tarifa, Spain. They were Sub-Saharan Africans from various West
African countries including Senegal and the Ivory Coast, including refugees
registered with the UNHCR.
According to an
Ivorian man who claimed to be the only survivor of the incident, three boats
left that night from the forest outside Tangiers. All three boats had already
passed the borderline markers in the sea when they began to sink, most likely
due to excess weight. Legally, since the boats were in Spanish territory, the
migrants should have been dealt with by Spanish Border Patrol and any survivors
taken back to Spain where they could apply for Asylum. However, all three boats
were in fact dealt with by Moroccan police, who chased them across the border,
outside their actual jurisdiction, allegedly without informing the Spanish
police of the deaths of migrants.
