Walking Borders, a group that advocates for migrants' rights, said Thursday that as many as fifty migrants who attempted to reach Spain via boat from West Africa drowned.

Moroccan authorities rescued 36 people on Wednesday from a boat which had left Mauritania in January, according to a group based out of Madrid and Navarra. The boat had originally carried 86 migrants including 66 Pakistanis.

Walking Borders reports that a record 10,457 migrants or 30 people per day died in the attempt to reach Spain by 2024. Most of these migrants were crossing the Atlantic route between West African countries like Mauritania, Senegal, and the Canary Islands.

The rights group claimed that it notified authorities in all countries concerned six days earlier about the missing vessel.

Alarm Phone, a non-profit that offers a phone number for migrants who are lost at sea and need to contact emergency services, reported on Jan. 12 that it had notified the Spanish maritime rescue service.

The service stated that it had no information on the boat.

Fernando Clavijo, regional leader of the Canary Islands, expressed his sadness for the victims on the social media platform X and urged Spain to take action to prevent future tragedies.

Clavijo, on X, said: "The Atlantic cannot be the graveyard for Africa." They cannot turn their backs to this humanitarian tragedy.

Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno stated on X, that 44 of the drowned victims were Pakistani.

She said, "They endured 13 days of agony on the border crossing without anyone helping them." (Reporting and writing by Joan Faus, Emma Pinedo, Charlie Devereux. Editing by Bernadettebaum)

(source: Reuters)