A group of Moroccan NGOs has called on Spain and Morocco to end "widespread violence" against illegal immigrants, in a letter to Spain's ambassador, after 12 people drowned trying to cross their common border.

"We are deeply concerned to see the close cooperation between Spain and Morocco on border control today resulting in... widespread violence against migrants and security practices outside of any legal framework," the eight NGOs said in the open letter seen by AFP on Friday.

Police found the body of a migrant on a beach in Ceuta Wednesday, bringing to 11 the number of people who drowned trying to swim to the Spanish exclave from Morocco, an official said.

Officers discovered the body of a man in his twenties at Ceuta's Tarajal beach, a spokesman for the Spanish government's delegation in the territory said.

Human Rights Watch on Monday called on Morocco and Spain to end the abusive treatment of sub-Saharan immigrants, after nine migrants drowned trying to reach the Spanish territory of Ceuta.

Morocco has struggled to cope with a rising tide of sub-Saharan Africans heading to its northern shores in their desperate quest to cross the Mediterranean, and its security forces have increasingly come under fire for beating, arbitrarily detaining and deporting illegal immigrants.

Spain on Friday denied its security forces had fired rubber bullets at migrants trying to swim to Spanish soil, after nine Africans drowned in the attempt.

The nine, including one woman, drowned on Thursday while trying to reach the Spanish territory of Ceuta from a beach in neighboring Morocco. Other migrants tried to storm through a land checkpoint.

Officials in Spain on Friday denied security forces had fired rubber bullets at migrants trying to swim to Spanish soil, after nine Africans drowned in the attempt.

The nine, including one woman, drowned on Thursday while trying to reach the Spanish territory of Ceuta from a beach in neighbouring Morocco. Other migrants tried to storm through a land checkpoint.

Iran will soon resume diplomatic ties with Morocco, severed by Rabat four years ago over Tehran's alleged meddling in the affairs of Bahrain and of Morocco itself, a senior official said Thursday.

"Following a recent phone call between the foreign ministers of the two countries, (they) agreed to resume diplomatic relations," Mehr news agency quoted the deputy foreign minister for Arab affairs, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, as saying.

At least seven migrants, including a woman, drowned on Thursday as they tried to swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from a beach in neighbouring Morocco, Moroccan authorities said.

The victims belonged to a group of around "200 illegal migrants" who made the attempt, municipal authorities in the Moroccan town of Fnideq said, without giving the nationalities of the migrants.

A campaign of "no tolerance" for violence against women was launched in Morocco Wednesday by rights groups pressing the government to take greater action.

The "Strength of Women" group, which is partly funded by the European Union, has drawn up a petition that it will present to Islamist premier Abdelilah Benkirane listing a number of demands.

The bodies of five presumed migrants thought to have been trying to reach Spain were found on Sunday on northern Morocco's shoreline, local authorities said.

"The bodies of five probably illegal migrants, four of them from Senegal, were washed up from the Mediterranean" in the Nador area, MAP news agency cited officials as saying.

Algeria summoned Morocco's ambassador Wednesday in a tit-for-tat move over allegations it had expelled dozens of Syrian refugees that added a new twist to frequent rows between the North African neighbors.

The ambassador was informed of "the Algerian government's strong rejection of unfounded claims ... of the supposed expulsion of Syrian nationals to Moroccan territory," a foreign ministry spokesman said.