More than 40 people, including three children, have died after their boat capsized off the coast of Tarfaya in southern Morocco on Monday, a migrants rights group said.

Survivors had called for help in the early hours of Sunday morning and could hold contact for two hours.

The Spanish organization Caminando Fronteras, which tracked data from boats in distress, told AFP, "It took hours for the (Moroccan) authorities to locate and save the boat."

According to the organization's spokesperson, only two bodies have been recovered, while ten others were rescued from the shipwreck.

Almost more than 4,000 people were killed or disappeared just in last year attempting to cross Spain from Morocco.

Morocco is a fundamental departure point to Spain and is used by many migrants hoping to reach Europe.

But the figures in 2021 of those dead or missing were twice as many as in 2020, according to the Caminando Fronteras.

The Spanish interior minister has said that more than 370,000 migrants will have crossed into Spain by the sea in 2021.