In posts updated almost daily on social media, Senegal’s navy details how its patrol boat, Walo, reroutes vessels crammed with refugees trying to get to Europe. Photos show people disembarking from the boats, their faces blurred out: women in flowing chiffon dresses, barefoot children, a man wearing an “Mbour Sport Academie” shirt.
Last year, Senegalese authorities intercepted just one known boat headed for Europe. But just in the space of a week this September, more than 600 would-be refugees were turned back by the country’s navy, just as their canoes started inching across the turbulent Atlantic on a dangerous but popular journey.
