More than 60 people are believed to have died after the boat they were travelling on from Senegal was found off Cape Verde, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
At least 63 asylum seekers are thought to have died, while the 38 survivors include four children between the ages of 12 and 16, an IOM spokesperson told AFP.
Police said the long wooden fishing vessel was spotted on Monday in the Atlantic Ocean off west Africa, about 150 nautical miles (277 kilometres) from the Cape Verdean island of Sal.
Initial reports suggested the vessel had sunk, but it was later clarified that it was found drifting. The vessel was located by a Spanish fishing boat, which alerted Cape Verdean authorities.
It was not immediately clear when the incident occurred, but according to survivors the boat left Senegal on 10 July with about 100 passengers on board.
Emergency services have recovered the remains of seven people, the IOM spokesperson told AFP, while another 56 people are believed to be missing.
“Generally, when people are reported missing following a shipwreck, they are presumed dead,” the spokesperson said.
Cape Verde lies about 350 miles (600km) off the coast on the maritime route to Spain’s Canary Islands.
The Atlantic migration route from west Africa to the Canary Islands, typically used to reach mainland Spain, is one of the world’s deadliest.
“Safe and regular pathways to migration are sorely lacking, which is what gives room to smugglers and traffickers to put people on these deadly journeys,” the IOM said.
At least 559 people died attempting to reach the Canary Islands in 2022, while 126 people died or went missing on the same route in the first six months of this year, with 15 shipwrecks recorded, according to IOM.
In July, another 15 people drowned when a boat capsized off the coast of Senegal’s capital Dakar.
As migration returns to the top of Europe’s political agenda, including in the UK, Europe’s border and coastguard agency said last week that irregular arrivals had risen by 13% between January and July to 176,100, the highest number for the period since 2016.
Frontex said the increase was entirely driven by a 115% rise in the number of people using the “central Mediterranean” route, which is now the main migratory route into the EU and accounts for more than half of all border detections.
At least 11 migrants died on Monday and seven others remained missing after the boat they were travelling on capsized off the Tunisia’s coast, according to Tunisian authorities.
The week before, another 41 people are feared to have died after a boat sank in rough seas off the Italian island of Lampedusa in the central Mediterranean.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this report
