More than 60 migrants are feared dead after coast guards rescued 38 people on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean that had left Senegal with more than 100 aboard.
Survivors on the boat, that left more than a month ago bound for Spain, were rescued off the Atlantic island country of Cape Verde on Tuesday, about 620 kilometres (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa.
Senegal’s foreign affairs ministry said the boat was rescued on Tuesday with 38 survivors and several dead on board by the coast guard in Cape Verde.
Authorities did not confirm how many migrants died, or what caused the trip to fail.
The Spanish migration advocacy group Walking Borders said the vessel was a large fishing boat, called a pirogue, which had left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 migrants on board.
The vessel was first spotted on Monday by a Spanish fishing boat, according to reports.
Families in Fass Boye, a seaside town 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital Dakar, had reached out to Walking Borders on July 20 after 10 days without hearing from loved ones on the boat, group founder Helena Maleno Garzon said.
Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the local fishermen’s association, said he has two nephews among the missing.
“They wanted to go to Spain,” he said.
Terrible la muerte de noventa y dos personas en un cayuco que salió desde Senegal el diez de julio con destino a Canarias. Los treinta y ocho supervivientes fueron rescatados por las autoridades de Cabo Verde.👇🏿 pic.twitter.com/gbzSI9aoXR
— Helena Maleno Garzón (@HelenaMaleno) August 16, 2023
Almost all those on board the boat, which was at sea for over a month, are thought to have been from Senegal, the BBC reports.
The survivors include four children aged between 12 and 16, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
The route from West Africa to Spain is one of the world’s most dangerous, yet the number of migrants leaving from Senegal on wooden boats has surged over the past year.
Nearly 1,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of 2023, Walking Borders says.
