About 10 Nigerian Christians migrating to
Spain for a better life met their death
when they were allegedly thrown
overboard for praying.
The perpetrators of the act, it was
reported, threw a Nigerian pastor and
others who had joined him to pray when
the travellers experienced bad weather
mid-sea, blaming them for the worsening
weather conditions.
Two Cameroonian migrants have been
arrested by Spanish police in connection
with the incident, following accusations
that they threw the 10 Nigerians
overboard.
According to Sky News, after hitting bad
weather, a Nigerian pastor – one of
around 50 sub-Saharan African migrants
making the journey in an inflatable boat –
began to pray that they would not sink
and some of his fellow Nigerian migrants
joined him in the prayer. Some survivors
said the Cameroonian men accused the
pastor of causing the stormy weather and
then pushed him and the others praying
overboard.
When the survivors arrived in Spain, they
appeared afraid of the two Cameroonians.
This aroused the suspicions of officials.
A statement from the Spanish police,
shared on The West Australian, says
that, “the detainees blamed the bad
weather on the Nigerians who were
praying and used the boards that covered
the bottom of the boat to assault and
throw overboard the pastor and the other
Nigerian passengers.”
The 50 migrants departed from northern
Morocco on December 3 in an inflatable
boat without a motor. They were hoping
to make the nine-mile journey across the
Strait of Gibraltar to Spain.
The boat was found adrift off the coast of
Almeria, southern Spain, two days later by
Spanish coast guard officials. There were
29 survivors, including a three-year-old
child. The rest of the passengers who did
not survive “perished due to the rough
conditions of these types of voyages,” the
police said.
Thousands of African migrants risk the
dangerous journey from Morocco to Spain
every year but many of them never make
it to Europe. Last year, 3,500 migrants
stranded on boats off Spain’s coast were
rescued by the country’s maritime rescue.
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