Rabat, Morocco (TMT)- Many Moroccans were reported dead while various others are still missing after a boat capsized during a journey from Libya to the Italian coasts.
Around 13 lone Moroccan children were rescued, but Moroccan survivors say about 100 migrants from all nationalities are still missing, including at least 14 Moroccans, all feared dead.
One of the Moroccan survivors, a 17-year-old boy, told aid workers that “he left Marrakech to seek a better future in Europe,” reported the Telegraph.
The 17-year-old “crossed the Algerian desert in three days before arriving in Libya, where he worked as a tile layer for a month without pay. He did not tell his mother, fearing she would worry,” the Telegraph reported.
While in Libya, the young Moroccan “befriended four other minors from Morocco and 10 adults, all of whom were with him on the capsized boat.”
According to the young boy, all Moroccans whom were with him passed away.
Aid workers who had spoken with the boy told the Telegraph that “he is in despair over the loss . . . he is saying very little.”
According to the UNNHCR Senior Communications Officer William Spindler, taking into account last week’s crossings only, as of today, “more than 700 people are missing, presumed dead from shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.”
The Moroccan Times.
