200 Migrants From Senegal Aboard Missing Boat Off Canary Island

Spanish rescuers are searching waters off the canary islands for a boat carrying at least 200 African migrants who went missing more than a week ago.

The aid group walking borders says the fishing boat sailed from Kafountine, a coastal town in southern Senegal that is roughly 1,700 kilometres from Tenerife.

The group says many children are on board, Spain’s Efe news agency reports.

Two similar boats carrying dozens more people are also said to be missing.

Last year at least 559 people died at sea attempting to reach the Spanish islands, the United Nation’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says.

The death toll for 2021 was 1,126.

Read Also:

BBC reported that Spain’s Salvamento Maritimo – the country’s sea search and rescue organisation – is leading the efforts to find the missing boats in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Western Africa.

“The families are very worried. There are about 300 people from the same area of Senegal. They have left because of the instability in Senegal,” Ms Maleno told news media.

The fishing boat reportedly sailed from Kafountine, a coastal town in southern Senegal.

There are many children onboard the boats as well, Spain’s Efe news agency reported.

This comes just weeks after at least 78 people died in one of the worst Mediterranean migrant shipwrecks off the coast of Greece. The United Nations said that at least 500 people were still missing.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, nearly 1700 people have died while trying to come to the Canary Islands via boats since 2021.

On Sunday, one migrant was reported dead and 10 others missing after a boat that had set sail from Tunisia and was headed to Italy sank in the Mediterranean Sea.