Some 50 migrants lost at sea off Spain after rubber boat sinks
Around 50 migrants are missing and feared drowned at sea, Spanish coastguards said Tuesday, after they rescued three "exhausted and disorientated" men from a rubber boat that had initially held many more people.
The coastguard searching for survivors. Photo: Salvamento Maritimo
"We suppose" that they drowned, a spokeswoman for the coastguards told AFP, adding however that rescue forces were still surveying the seas near Spain's Alboran Island where the boat was found drifting, to try and find any survivors.
If the missing are confirmed dead, this will be the deadliest sea crossing in this part of the Mediterranean since the start of the year.
So far, 60 migrants have died trying to cross the waters to Spain from north Africa since January, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The "half-sunk" boat was spotted around 50 kilometres (31 miles) southwest of Alboran Island, which lies in the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean.
El buque Sar Mastelero de @salvamentogob continuará toda la noche, en el mar de Alborán, la búsqueda de los desaparecidos de la #patera pic.twitter.com/ODQnwYk8mi
— SALVAMENTO MARÍTIMO (@salvamentogob) July 4, 2017
The survivors, three men aged 17 to 25 from sub-Saharan Africa, "explained that more than 50 people were on board the rubber boat which had been drifting for several days after leaving the northern coast of Morocco," the coastguards said in a statement.
They were taken to hospital in Almeria in southern Spain, and are still too weak to tell a detailed story of what happened, the spokeswoman said.
According to the IOM, 6,464 people reached Spain after crossing the Mediterranean between January 1 and June 25. Another 60 died.
Altogether, at least 2,247 people have died or are missing after trying to cross the sea into Europe via Spain, Italy or Greece this year, the IOM says.
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How the EU aims to reform border-free Schengen area
European countries agreed on Thursday to push towards a long-stalled reform of the bloc's migration system, urging tighter control of external borders and better burden-sharing when it comes to asylum-seekers.
Published: 4 February 2022 10:09 CET
European interior ministers met in the northern French city of tourcoing, where president Emmanuel Macron gave a speech. Photo: Yoat Valat/AFP
The EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson, speaking after a meeting of European interior ministers, said she welcomed what she saw as new momentum on the issue.
In a reflection of the deep-rooted divisions on the issue, France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin – whose country holds the rotating EU presidency – said the process would be "gradual", and welcomed what he said was unanimous backing.
EU countries backed a proposal from French President Emmanuel Macron to create a council guiding policy in the Schengen area, the passport-free zone used by most EU countries and some affiliated nations such as Switzerland and Norway.
Schengen council
Speaking before the meeting, Macron said the "Schengen Council" would evaluate how the area was working but would also take joint decisions and facilitate coordination in times of crisis.
"This council can become the face of a strong, protective Europe that is comfortable with controlling its borders and therefore its destiny," he said.
The first meeting is scheduled to take place on March 3rd in Brussels.
A statement released after the meeting said: "On this occasion, they will establish a set of indicators allowing for real time evaluation of the situation at our borders, and, with an aim to be able to respond to any difficulty, will continue their discussions on implementing new tools for solidarity at the external borders."
The statement also confirmed EU countries agreed to take a step-by-step approach on plans for reforming the EU's asylum rules.
"The ministers also discussed the issues of asylum and immigration," it read.
"They expressed their support for the phased approach, step by step, put forward by the French Presidency to make headway on these complex negotiations.
"On this basis, the Council will work over the coming weeks to define a first step of the reform of the European immigration and asylum system, which will fully respect the balance between the requirements of responsibility and solidarity."
A planned overhaul of EU migration policy has so far foundered on the refusal of countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to accept a sharing out of asylum-seekers across the bloc.
That forces countries on the EU's outer southern rim – Italy, Greece, Malta and Spain – to take responsibility for handling irregular migrants, many of whom are intent on making their way to Europe's wealthier northern nations.
France is pushing for member states to commit to reinforcing the EU's external borders by recording the details of every foreign arrival and improving vetting procedures.
It also wants recalcitrant EU countries to financially help out the ones on the frontline of migration flows if they do not take in asylum-seekers themselves.
Johansson was critical of the fact that, last year, "45,000 irregular arrivals" were not entered into the common Eurodac database containing the fingerprints of migrants and asylum-seekers.
Earlier, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser suggested her country, France and others could form a "coalition of the willing" to take in asylum-seekers even if no bloc-wide agreement was struck to share them across member states.
She noted that Macron spoke of a dozen countries in that grouping, but added that was probably "very optimistic".
Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, hailed what he said was "a less negative atmosphere" in Thursday's meeting compared to previous talks.
But he cautioned that "we cannot let a few countries do their EU duty… while others look away".
France is now working on reconciling positions with the aim of presenting propositions at a March 3rd meeting on European affairs.
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