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.

A lone survivor had been brought to the city of Nouadhibo in Mauritania.  

“Despite Covid-19 mobility restrictions, migrants are still compelled to undertake risky journeys,” IOM Mauritania chief of mission Laura Lungarotti said today.

“While we continue to provide humanitarian assistance hand-in-hand with the government ... and civil society, the need for predictable rescue and assistance procedures remains. This is all the more important whilst public-health measures are still in place”.

“These deaths are preventable, and they are avoidable,” UNHCR special envoy for the Central Mediterranean Vincent Cochetel said.

“We must take action to target the smugglers and traffickers who offer false promises to migrants and refugees of safe passage to Europe.

“At the same time, we need to offer effective protection and services to people in countries of asylum and transit to strengthen their socio-economic inclusion and integration with host communities so they don’t feel the desperation that drives them to risk their lives on these desperate journeys.”

The refugee distress hotline organisation Alarm Phone said: “The militarisation of European borders has produced longer and ever-more dangerous routes, including those across the Atlantic Ocean.

“Death at sea will cease when freedom of movement ceases to be a privilege and becomes a right. Borders kill.”