NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A Norfolk container ship rescued a small boat with several dozen migrants on board about 100 miles off the coast of Morocco on Friday.
The Maersk Kinloss responded around 5:30 a.m. local time after receiving a distress call from the Canary Islands’ Las Palmas Marine Rescue Coordination Center, Maersk spokesman Kevin Doell said.
The Kinloss was in the area at the time and found the approximately 20-foot vessel, which had no communications equipment, in apparent distress with approximately 50 people on board. The Kinloss crew provided the migrants with food, water and blankets and stayed with them for about seven hours until a Moroccan search and rescue boat arrived, according to a witness on the ship who asked not to be identified.
The witness said the Kinloss had security problems and therefore the migrants were not allowed on board.
“Upon the arrival of the SAR vessel, AL MANAR, the passengers were successfully transferred from their boat to the AL MANAR and the MAERSK KINLOSS resumed its journey,” Doell said. “We commend the exceptional seamanship and unwavering duty of care demonstrated by the U.S. officers and crew of the Maersk KINLOSS in their timely assistance.”
The witness who tipped WAVY off to the rescue says he believes the boat’s occupants, who had reportedly been at sea for days, knew the Kinloss was headed to Spain and tried to have the ship take them there. He also said a nearby fishing boat first sent the distress signal on its behalf.
Tens of thousands of migrants attempt to make the journey from Africa to Spain every year in open-air boats similar to the one found on Friday, and many die in the process. according to news reports. At least 951 people died trying to reach Spain in the first months of 2023 alone. according to Al Jazeera. About 12,192 people reached the Spanish coast in the same time frame, the province’s Interior Ministry reported.
The non-governmental human rights organization Caminando Fronteras has attributed the deaths to a lack of coordination between Spain and Morocco and is more concerned with ‘politics’ than rescuing the stranded people.
Experts cite several factors for the increase in migration from Africa to Europe in recent years, including conflicts and political instability. Climate change has exacerbated already fragile conditionsExperts say worsening floods and droughts are pushing many to take the risk of migrating to Europe.
“Large numbers of extremely desperate people willing to make their money with traffickers, boats and across borders – that will only increase as a result of climate change,” said Ian Urbina, director of the Outlaw Ocean Project, told PBS News Hour.
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