49 refugees feared drowned trying to cross Mediterranean to Europe

Spanish coastguards say no less than 49 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to seek greener pastures in Europe drowned after their rubber boat sank in the Alboran Sea.

However, the coastguards say three “exhausted and disorientated” people were rescued from the deflated rubber boat on Tuesday that is believed to have left Morocco with 52 people aboard.

Read also: CHINA: 56 people killed in floods as river overflows

Rescue operatives say the “half-sunk” boat was spotted around 50km southwest of Spain’s Alboran Island, which lies in the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean.

The three rescued 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.

 

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