Eight Migrants Found Dead Off Morocco

Hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants set up their makeshift home on the edge of Morocco's coastal port city of Casablanca © FADEL SENNA / AFP
Hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants set up their makeshift home on the edge of Morocco's coastal port city of Casablanca © FADEL SENNA / AFP
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Eight Migrants Found Dead Off Morocco

Hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants set up their makeshift home on the edge of Morocco's coastal port city of Casablanca © FADEL SENNA / AFP
Hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants set up their makeshift home on the edge of Morocco's coastal port city of Casablanca © FADEL SENNA / AFP

The bodies of eight migrants have been found after their vessel sank off Morocco's northern coast, local authorities said Wednesday, adding that nine others were rescued.

The migrants took off from Morocco's northern Nador region seeking to "cross the Mediterranean aboard an inflatable boat", authorities were quoted by the state news agency MAP as saying.

The boat sank on Tuesday "due to poor weather conditions", it said.

The authorities said "the search is continuing for missing people" after nine had been rescued, and that an investigation had been opened into the incident.

The migrants' nationalities were not immediately specified.

Morocco is a frequent launching point for many irregular migrants who make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean or the Atlantic in a bid to find better lives in Europe.

In the past weeks, the Moroccan navy announced it had intercepted or rescued dozens of migrants during various operations at its southwestern coast.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”