At least 44 people drown as boat capsizes off Morocco

At least 44 refugees, including women and infants, drowned this week off Morocco's coast as they tried to reach Spain, migrant aid agency Caminando Fronteras has said.

Quoting relatives of the victims, it said the bodies of five women and two babies were brought ashore but the rest were still missing.

"Tragedy. At least 44 victims drowned off the coast of Tarfaya (southern Morocco)," the aid agency's Helena Maleno tweeted on Saturday.

Big blasts here in Mykolaiv today. Civilians going shopping were hit. Body bags on the streets. #ukraine pic.twitter.com/bsjCwkg7iZ

— Isobel Yeung (@IsobelYeung) March 13, 2022

They were among 61 refugees who boarded a boat heading for Spain's Canary Islands, around 100 kilometres (62 miles) away from Tarfaya, she said.

A total of 16 women and six infants were among those on board, Maleno said.

"The bodies of three women and two babies are now at the morgue of Laayoune," the main city in the disputed Western Sahara territory.

The North African kingdom of Morocco is a key transit point on routes taken by migrants hoping for better lives on European shores.

According to the Spanish interior ministry, more than 40,000 migrants arrived in the country by sea in 2021.

The European Union said this week it wanted to bolster cooperation with Morocco to stem the flow of illegal migrants entering the bloc, amid a sharp jump in attempts to reach the Canary Islands -- a gateway to the EU.