Migrants disappear from Moroccan desert camp

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said yesterday that a group of African migrants have disappeared from the desert camp where they were being held by Moroccan authorities.

The Spanish media are closely following the report which has appeared amid mass attempts by migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to force their way into two Spanish enclaves in North Africa and just days after Spain returned 70 illegal migrants to Morocco.

MSF reported on Friday that it had found hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries, including pregnant women and children, in the Moroccan desert who said they had been taken there by Moroccan forces and then abandoned.

On Saturday MSF said the migrants, who it then numbered at about 1,000, had been taken to a camp in the desert town of Bouarfa, some 500 km southeast of the Moroccan capital of Rabat.

The aid group said the Moroccan government and African diplomats told it they were in talks to repatriate the migrants.

Yesterday MSF said the migrants at Bouarfa had been separated into three groups: those from Senegal, those from Mali and a third group of other nationalities, who disappeared during the night.

"We are hearing that the Moroccan police took them away in the direction of the southwest... that is the desert," MSF spokesman Carlos Ugarte said.