At least eighteen migrants dead attempting to reach Ceuta
Thousands of young people from Morocco have accessed the autonomous city by sea and land since Wednesday
BarcelonaAt least eighteen migrants have lost their lives trying to swim from Morocco to Ceuta. The Civil Guard recovered the bodies of eighteen people between Thursday and Friday, six of them in the last few hours, and Maritime Rescue recovered one more, according to EFE. The death toll is not expected to stop rising.
The first discovery was made early on Thursday. The Salvamar Atria vessel, based in Ceuta, was responsible for recovering the body from the water and transporting it to the port, according to the EFE agency.
On the same Thursday, agents of the Civil Guard's Maritime Service found the lifeless bodies of eleven more people around the Tarajal border, who are presumed to have drowned while trying to enter by swimming from Morocco. Later, the same Civil Guard found three more lifeless bodies floating in the sea near the southern front of Tarajal.
The bodies have been transferred to the Civil Guard's facilities in the fishing port, where autopsies will be performed to reveal the exact causes of death. Initial hypotheses suggest that these people died from asphyxiation while trying to reach the coast of Ceuta by swimming.
With these victims, at least 48 migrants have now lost their lives in the waters off the coast of Ceuta since the beginning of the year; 26 this July.
