Authorities and migrant advocates stated that after coast guards near the Atlantic Island of Cabo Verde rescued 38 individuals on a boat that had departed Senegal in West Africa more than one month ago with more than 100 aboard, dozens of migrants destined for Spain are now thought to be missing and feared dead.
The boat was retrieved by the coast guard at Cabo Verde, some 620 kilometres (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa, according to the foreign affairs ministry of Senegal, with 38 survivors and several dead on board. Authorities did not confirm how many migrants died on the journey or what went wrong.
According to the Spanish organisation Walking Borders, the boat was a big fishing boat known as a pirogue that left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 people aboard.
Families in Fass Boye, a beach community 90 miles (145 kilometres) north of the capital Dakar, contacted Walking Borders on July 20 after waiting 10 days to hear from loved ones on board, according to Helena Maleno Garzón, the organization’s founder.
The missing include two of Cheikh Awa Boye’s nephews, the president of the neighbourhood fishermen’s association. They wanted to travel to Spain, Boye said.
Even though the voyage from West Africa to Spain is among the most hazardous in the world, the number of migrants sailing from Senegal on flimsy wooden boats has increased over the past year.
According to Walking Borders, about 1,000 migrants lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Spain in the first half of 2023. Youth unemployment, political turmoil, and the effects of climate change all encourage migrants to take risks with their lives on crowded boats.
After their boat overturned off the coast of Western Sahara on August 7, the Moroccan navy found the dead of five Senegalese migrants and rescued 189 others.
