REFUGEE-rights organisations blamed Europe’s militarised borders today as news broke of refugee shipwrecks off the west coast of Africa.

Around 50 refugees are reported to have died while attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands from Western Sahara in two separate boats on Thursday.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) confirmed the deaths of 27 people whose bodies were found in the Atlantic Ocean by the Mauritanian coastguard.