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Spain: 388 people die on the Spanish coasts in one year including 122 children

15 May 2017

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388 people die on the Spanish coasts in one year including 122 children
15.5.17
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Between September 2015 and December 2016, 388 people died in their attempt to arrive in Spain by boat. 31.4% of them were children and 7.9% of them women, according to an extensive report by the NGO Caminando Fronteras. The organisation documents that, behind these deaths, beyond the risk implicit in the sea crossing, are deficiencies in the rescue efforts at the southern border that "give precedence to migration control over saving lives."

The report also documents six deaths and 739 serious injuries caused by attempts to jump the fences in Ceuta and Melilla, with 98 adolescents between 14 and 17 amongst the injured. In the attempts at entry they recorded by the organisation, they maintain that there were 258 "hot returns" in Melilla and 311 in Ceuta. Of the people subject to immediate expulsion, 124 were adolescents between 14 and 17 years of age.

Source: Gabriela Sánchez, '388 personas murieron en las costas españolas en un año, entre ellas, 122 menores', El Diario, 9 May 2017

See the report: Caminando Fronteras, 'Tras la frontera' (link to pdf) and the organisation: Caminando Fronteras (link):

"The collective Caminando Fronteras started to work in Morocco in 2002 with sub-Saharan African migrants in transit towards Europe, constituiting itself as a social collective in the Spanish state in 2008."

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