Two Moroccan Teens Missing After Attempting Kayak Crossing to Ceuta

Ayoub Fakhry, 18, and his friend Bilal, 19, decided to reach Ceuta by kayak. But before setting off, he called his brother Soufiane on the phone around 10 p.m. to ask him to pray for him. Since then, he has been reported missing.

"My brother wanted to leave Morocco since the age of 16... He decided to leave, despite the repeated cases of disappearance and death at sea of candidates for illegal immigration," explains Soufiane in tears to El Faro de Ceuta.

With a disabled father and a mother with cancer, Ayoub’s family is already going through a difficult period, before learning the news of his disappearance. Desperate, and not knowing where to turn, she is asking for help to find Ayoub, the youngest in the family. At the Civil Guard, no information on the two young Moroccans has been reported.

Many young Moroccans risk their lives to cross Ceuta by swimming or by kayak. Since the closure of the Moroccan borders for health reasons, the number of cases of disappearance or death at sea of these young people, candidates for illegal immigration, has increased sharply.