Morocco intercepts a boat with 141 people as African migrants increasingly attempt to reach Spain

By SAM METZ
Associated Press

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — The Moroccan navy has intercepted 141 people attempting to traverse the Atlantic Ocean as migration from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands spikes. Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces said in a statement Sunday it was able to rescue all passengers on a boat off the coast of the Western Sahara, a disputed territory with a coastline that Morocco has controlled since 1975. It said the 141 passengers all came from sub-Saharan Africa and likely embarked more than a week earlier from Mauritania — Morocco’s southern neighbor and the primary point of departure for migrants attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands. Spain said that 11,704 migrants had arrived to the Canaries as of Feb. 15 — more than a sixfold increase from a year earlier.