Moroccan footballer among victims of Nador shipwreck

While authorities in Morocco are still working with families to identify the victims of a shipwreck off Nador in February, football club Najm Midar has learned that one of its players, Houcine Biay, is among the young Moroccans who died after their boat capsized while trying to reach Spain. The 20-year-old aspired to a professional career with a Spanish club.

The body was identified thanks to DNA testing. «The player had great football skills, which earned him the appreciation and attention of several second division clubs», media sources indicate. «But his dream was always to play in Europe, unaware that the route he took would lead him to drown at sea».

The deceased was one of around fifty migrants who left on a boat that capsized before reaching the Iberian Peninsula. Following the tragedy, some twenty bodies were found, and only nine of the passengers survived. Several others are still missing, while four of them have been identified.

Last week, the local section of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights in Nador (AMDH) urged the families of the missing to contact the Royal Gendarmerie and the city's morgue, to start identification of their loved ones' bodies.