One to four years prison sentences for smugglers of clandestine migrants
Morocco-Spain, Judicial, 5/15/1999

A Moroccan court sentenced three smugglers of clandestine migrants to prison terms ranging between one to four years for their involvement in the drowning of nine persons who were attempting to stealthily join the Spanish coasts.

Corpses of nine persons were recovered and several others are still missing. The migrants drowned after the smugglers, who were carrying them in three rickety boats, told them to jump overboard and swim to reach Spanish shores.

The victims were nowhere near Spain but still off the coast of Morocco.

Moroccan Interior Minister Driss Basri has deplored the drowning of clandestine migrants and expressed the Moroccan government's resolve to tighten control measures to contain the phenomenon.

Scores of illegal migrants have perished in recent years, mostly when their rafts capsize in the narrow Straits of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain.

Previous Stories:
  Nine bodies of illegal emigrants washed up on Moroccan coasts   (5/10/1999)
  Briton and three french nationals sentenced for drug offenses   (4/28/1999)
  Moroccan daily reports existence of smuggling and illegal emigration rings at Algerian-Moroccan borders   (4/9/1999)

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