(RABAT) - A Moroccan NGO has accused the EU of ignoring fundamental human rights following the alleged deaths of 29 African immigrants on a boat heading towards Spain on April 28-29.

AFP on Wednesday obtained a copy of the report from the Friends and Families of Victims of Clandestine Immigration association (AFVIC), in which the events of the crossing are reconstructed as they possibly happened.

The incident off the northern coast of Morocco near Al Hoceima and left 29 passengers dead and another 19 missing, according to the report.

Moroccan troops allegedly punctured an inflatable boat carrying immigrants who refused to obey their orders, while a separate craft was towed to the coast without incident.

Survivors were sent to Oujda on the Algerian border, according to AFVIC, in an attempt to "cover up the tragedy."

The organisation, which is calling for a public inquiry into the affair, accused the European Union of "contracting out repression" against African immigrants in its policies.

In addition, AFVIC said that an unnamed official in the Moroccan justice ministry had "pledged to open a judicial inquiry" into the events.

One of the escapees, a Nigerian man named Oma Djada, told AFP by telephone last week that the sinking killed 28 people, from Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria and Sudan, including eight women and children.

According to the report, two boats left the Mediterranean coast of Morocco for Spain with a total of 60 passengers who had each paid 1,250 euros (1,900 dollars) for the crossing.

It quoted a 37-year-old Ivorian named Erik as telling AFVIC that Moroccan sailors "had a stick, on which they had attached a sharp object, and purposely punctured the inflatable boat".

"Another group from the navy came to help us but it was too late, a lot were dead. They threw us a rope, that's what saved us," he said.

A Nigerian woman was quoted as saying that her three-year-old daughter was among those who drowned.

AFVIC denounced the fact that "the most influential political parties refused to comment, some going as far as ignoring the scandal".

Rabat put the death toll at 10 and denied the report first carried by the Spanish daily El Pais that its forces were responsible.

A Spanish human rights group has said more than 900 would-be migrants to Europe died at sea trying to reach Spain in 2007, the majority at the start of their journey close to the coast of north Africa.

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