2023-08-17 05:50:02
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Dozens of migrants headed for Spain are missing and believed dead following coast guards from the Atlantic island of Cape Verde rescued 38 people on a boat that had left Senegal a month earlier. in West Africa, with more than 100 people on board, officials and activists said.
The ship was rescued Tuesday with 38 survivors and several dead on board by coast guards in Cape Verde, some 620 kilometers (385 miles) off the west African coast, according to the Senegalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Authorities did not confirm how many people had died or what had cut short the trip.
The Spanish activist group Caminando Fronteras, which defends the rights of migrants, said the ship was a large fishing vessel that left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 migrants on board.
Families in Fass Boye, a coastal town 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Senegalese capital Dakar, had contacted Caminando Fronteras on July 20 following 10 days without hearing from their loved ones on the boat, the agency said. founder of the group, Helena Maleno Garzón.
Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the local fishermen’s guild, said he had two nephews among the missing. “They wanted to go to Spain,” Boye said.
The route from West Africa to Spain is one of the most dangerous in the world, but the number of people leaving Senegal in flimsy wooden boats has increased in the past year.
Nearly 1,000 migrants died trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of 2023, according to Caminando Fronteras. Factors such as youth unemployment, political instability and the impact of climate change push migrants to risk their lives on overcrowded boats.
On August 7, the Moroccan Navy recovered the bodies of five Senegalese migrants and rescued 189 others following their ship capsized near Western Sahara.
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Associated Press writer Babacar Dione contributed to this report.
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