Spain: Deaths in the Strait
01 July 1996
Up to mid-July six intending immigrants were known to have drowned, and around 50 were unaccounted for, while attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco. It is estimated that 1,500 people succeeded in entering Spain in this way.
The Human Rights Association, APDH, has denounced the practice of criminal gangs who charge vast sums to transport immigrants, and sometimes defraud them by sailing along the Moroccan coast at night and then persuading their passengers that they have arrived in Spain. They have also been known to throw people overboard some distance from the landing beaches.