RABAT -- Two illegal migrants drowned and more than 20 others were reported missing off Morocco's North Atlantic coast after their dinghy capsized in bad weather, the official Map news agency said on Saturday.

The bodies of two men were washed ashore on Wednesday near Larache, about 135km (80 miles) north of the capital, Rabat.

One survivor told police the boat capsized at the start of the sea voyage to Spain just 100 meters (yards) from the coast.

He did not know if the missing passengers drowned or survived by swimming ashore. Search operations found no one.

Immigration officials in Spain say nearly 45,000 immigrants were stopped trying to enter the country illegally last year, most of them by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in ramshackle boats, an increase of about 10,000 over 2000.

The figure topped 40,000 in the first eight months of this year. Some 4,000 people have died or disappeared since 1997 in the Strait of Gibraltar and in the Atlantic waters between Africa and Spain, according to a Moroccan nongovernmental organization.