Forty-five migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have drowned in two separate incidents while trying to reach Spain, the Spanish Red Cross said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Jaime Bara said 23 people had drowned when a small boat carrying 43 migrants collided with a rescue boat and broke in two off the coast of western Sahara.
All 43 were tipped into the water and just 20 were saved, said Bara, who also confirmed earlier reports of a second shipwreck off the coast of Mauritania.
The Mauritanian Red Crescent said on Monday that 22 people had been lost at sea when a ship carrying 46 migrants capsized.
Bara said the Spanish Red Cross had mounted an urgent call for help with the Mauritanian Red crescent.
Most of the 45 who drowned were from Guinea Bissau, he added, while 38 of the survivors were Malian.
The Governor of the Canary Islands, Jose Segura, told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser on Tuesday that most migrants heading for the islands now had left from Mauritania, a longer and more dangerous route than the previously popular journey from the coast of Western Sahara.
Ahmedou Ould Haye, coordinator of the Mauritanian Red Crescent, told the radio station: ”We calculate that since November 2005 between 1 200 and 1 300 people have died at sea trying to reach the Canaries. They are prepared to commit suicide. It’s a game of Russian roulette — either I get there or I die.”
Segura said migrants were using a new type of boat, known as a ”cayuco”, to tackle the journey of more than 1 000km.
Cayucos, he said, are longer, more robust boats made of fibreglass and capable of carrying between 50 and 70 people.
They are between 14m and 18m long and have two engines as well as a dozen containers of fuel.
Separately, the Moroccan authorities have returned 20 shipwreck survivors to Mauritania, the Mauritanian Red Crescent said.
The Red Crescent said they had been handed over to police in the Mauritanian city of Nouadhibou. – Sapa-AFP