tl;dr:

Spain’s public ombudsman has begun an investigation into why as many as 60 people stranded on an inflatable boat bound for the Canary Islands had to wait more than 12 hours to be rescued, leading to the loss of at least 35 lives, among them a child. Passengers on the boat - which got into difficulties off the coast of Western Sahara on Tuesday afternoon - appealed for help, but a Moroccan rescue boat did not appear until the following day, when it picked up 24 people. As audio emerged on Friday confirming that Spain’s maritime rescue service had left the rescue operation to its Moroccan counterparts, the country’s public ombudsman said he would be looking into the events of 21 June. The service said that while the boat had been located in a search-and-rescue operation shared between Spain and Morocco, it was decided that Morocco would run the rescue as the craft was 88 miles from the Canary island and just 40 miles from Laayoune, the capital of Western Sahara. The pilot was then ordered to return to base, as was the Spanish maritime rescue boat Guardamar Calíope, which was then about 40 miles from the inflatable boat.

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