MOROCCAN rescue services were on Saturday combing part of the country’s Atlantic coast for survivors after 13 bodies were washed up, and a survivor said they were from a group of 50 would-be migrants whose boat capsized. The survivor, who was found along with the bodies between the coastal towns of Sid Taibi and Bouknadel, near the town of Kenitra, told investigators that he had been one of a group of 50 people who had got aboard a small fishing boat earlier on Saturday in an attempt to get to Europe. However the boat had capsized shortly afterwards, he said, according to the Moroccan gendarmerie. Dozens of people from both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa attempt each day to cross from Morocco to the Spanish coast, where they hope to evade police patrols and begin a new life in Europe. – AFP
Saturday September 8, 2001