Seville, Spain - At least 921 would-be immigrants died in 2007 in attempts to cross over clandestinely from Africa to Spain, a Spanish human rights group said in a report made public on Thursday. The figure only reflected officially confirmed deaths, the Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos Andalusia (APDH-A) said, estimating the real death toll at a minimum of 3,500.
The victims usually drowned or died of thirst, hunger and exposure on board their vessels.
The APDH-A said 189 of the victims died off the Spanish mainland or the Canary Islands, and 732 off the West African coast.
Among the victims, 287 came from Maghreb countries such as Morocco or Algeria, 629 from other African countries and five from Asia.
It was not clear how many additional people died while trying to cross the Sahel zone to northern Africa in order to travel on to Spain, the report observed.
Spain and the European Union continued ignoring the root causes of emigration and adopting extremely repressive frontier policies, the APDH-A said.
