Moroccan Family of Three Drowns in Tragic Migration Attempt to Spain

The young couple (Mustapha, 26, and his wife, Najat, 20) and their son Wasim, 3, from the city of Oued Zem, planned to join Alicante, where Mustapha’s three sisters and several relatives have lived for about ten years.

According to a relative of Mustapha who requested anonymity, during the journey from Morocco to the Canary Islands, which cost the young couple six thousand euros, the boat that was transporting them capsized in the night of January 21, about three kilometers from the coast. The couple and their son, who could not swim, drowned, like the rest of the 45 occupants of the boat.

The news of the death of the boy and his young parents has chilled their relatives, friends and the entire population of Oued Zem where they lived. "It was a very hard blow," laments the relative. The bodies of Najat and her son were found and buried. However, Mustapha’s body remains missing. His family hopes to find the young man’s body one day.

In its report entitled "Monitoring the Right to Life", the NGO "Walking Borders" indicated that in 2020, 2,170 candidates for illegal immigration lost their lives trying to reach Spain by boat or kayak. In total, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior recorded the arrival of 40,106 migrants by sea on board 2,124 boats and kayaks, 14,003 people and 907 boats more than the previous year.