Tragic End for Syrian Couple: Thrown Overboard During Migrant Sea Crossing to Spain

Due to the epidemiological crisis, the sea offers itself as the only alternative for many people who have arrived in Nador and wish to reach Spain. Kozal, 28 years old, her husband, 37 years old who did not know how to swim, paid 3,500 euros each for this sea journey, remaining deaf to the warnings.

The cameras of the Spanish military detachment first spotted the entry of the motorcycle, two nautical miles off the Moroccan coast, with three people on board, then with only the pilot at the controls. Then the body of a woman is seen floating in the waves.

"The trafficker tricked them." "He threw them overboard before reaching the islands." recounts Hoshman Nassan, Mala Hussein’s older brother, a refugee in Germany for five years.

Three days after his arrival in Melilla, the Civil Guard informs Hoshman that a body has been found drifting near the islands. Hoshman describes the clothes Mala was wearing on the jet ski: "Gray shorts and short-sleeved shirt": the body found near the Chafarinas is that of Mala Hussein. The couple is buried in the Muslim cemetery of Melilla, two weeks after leaving Nador.

Only nine people have been able to access the city of Melilla this year, by swimming, jet ski or boat. That’s 97% less than in 2019, according to the same source.