Three other migrants wounded in incident, and two Spanish nationals arrested

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Moroccan woman killed after the country’s navy opened fire on a boat carrying two dozen migrants was buried on Wednesday.

The woman, who had been studying law, died before reaching a hospital on Tuesday, said Mohamed Benaissa, the head of Morocco’s northern observatory for human rights. Three other people were wounded in the confrontation, he said.

Some Moroccan media ran pictures of the woman’s identity card, which said she was 19. She had earlier been reported to be 22. She was buried in the northern city of Tétouan.

Benaissa said the speedboat was carrying 25 Moroccan nationals and two Spanish captains.

He said one of the wounded was shot in the arm as he tried to urge one of the Spanish captains to stop the boat when the navy spotted it. Doctors at the provincial hospital of the prefecture of M’diq-Fnideq amputated his arm and he was transferred to Rabat for further treatment.

The Spanish foreign ministry confirmed that two of its nationals had been arrested, one of whom had a criminal record. The official declined to elaborate on the criminal record.

Spain’s Europa Press, a private news agency, said the Spaniard had been charged twice and detained at least 16 times for violence against women and other unspecified crimes.

Morocco’s interior ministry said the boat was illegally transporting migrants.

It was the second time in recent days that Morocco’s royal navy intervened to stop a boat suspected of carrying migrants across the Mediterranean. Concerns have been growing about migrant trafficking in the western Mediterranean region.

The central Mediterranean route, mainly between Libya and Italy, is being choked off by the Libyan coastguard chasing smugglers’ small boats and returning migrants to Libya.

In a separate case, police in Tangier arrested two people aged 35 and 45, including a Spanish citizen residing illegally in Morocco, on suspicion of running a criminal network facilitating illegal migration.