Algiers, Algeria, after their boat sank on Monday morning, while six others were rescued, coast guards said, quoted by local media, adding that several other people are missing.
The shipwreck took place, according to the same sources, at 4:00 am (3:00 GMT) near Baïnem, a few kilometers west of downtown Algiers. “Six bodies were recovered, and six injured people, including a pregnant woman, were transferred to Baïnem hospital,” said the same sources.
Research by the Algerian Coast Guard and elements of Civil Protection, it was added, is continuing to find other migrants who were in the boat and who are missing. They would be nearly 20 people, of various nationalities, to board this makeshift boat to attempt the crossing to Europe.
Clandestine migrants often resort to renting a simple boat at nearly 2,000 dollars per seat to try to reach the other side of the Mediterranean. But the journey is still high risk.
The tragedy that occurred this Monday off the coast of Algiers is a new painful episode in the attempts of African migrants to cross the Mediterranean clandestinely to reach Spain. To fight against this phenomenon, Algeria regularly arrests migrants off its coasts, and at its southern borders from where sub-Saharans arrive to continue their journey towards Europe.
From last July 27 to current August 2, the Algerian coastguard rescued 147 individuals aboard homemade boats, while 39 illegal immigrants of different nationalities were arrested across the national territory.
Consequences of visa restrictions
According to the Algerian sociologist, of Malagasy origin, Mohamed-Saïb Musette, a specialist in migratory movements, “irregular migration by sea – called ”Harga” in the Maghreb is symptomatic of the levels of restrictions imposed on regular migration”. “The drop in the number of visas issued to Algerians is only the visible part of mobility constraints. The trend of departures can be observed through the level of interceptions by FRONTEX”, he explained in a short analysis of the figures on illegal migration, made public by this agency a few days ago.
The sociologist notes, in this sense, that FRONTEX “does not mention the people who arrived safely without being intercepted, nor the number of candidates missing or drowned in the Mediterranean”.
“Information disseminated on the Internet should be treated with caution. FRONTEX data should also be treated with caution. This agency is not authorized to identify the nationality of the haraga. It can just identify the origin without asserting that the nationals are of such or such nationality. The trends that can be observed through this data from January 2021 to May 2022 are quite eloquent because the nationals supposed to come from Algeria are less numerous than those from neighboring countries”, he specified.
According to him, “we can observe during the period June-October 2021 that there was a record interception for Algeria, with 3143 haraga (illegal migrants) in September never recorded for more than a decade”.
“This record for Algeria is also lower than the volumes of interceptions for Tunisia (with more than 4,000 in July and August). It is also lower than those of Morocco (with 3,363 haraga) during the same period. For the beginning of this year, the trend is at the seasonal normal less intense than that of neighboring countries,” he concluded
