300 migrants traveling in 3 boats from Senegal to Spain are missing: Walking Borders
DAKAR: At least 300 people traveling from Senegal to Spain in three boats are missing, a Spanish aid group said Monday, raising concern about their fate along one of the deadliest sea routes for migrants. Two boats departed June 23 from Mbour, a coastal city in central Senegal, carrying about 100 people, and a third left the southern town of Kafountine four days later with approximately 200 people, according to Helena Maleno Garzon, coordinator for the aid group Walking Borders, which is known as Caminando Fronteras in Spanish. There has been no contact with the boats since their departures, she said.
“The most important thing is to find those people. There are many people missing in the sea. This isn’t normal.
We need more planes to look for them," Garzon told The Associated Press. Spain's Maritime Rescue Service said Monday that its plane spotted a vessel approximately 130 kilometers (80 miles) from one of the Canary Islands that appeared to have the same characteristics as one of the boats reported missing. The vessel seen near the island of Gran Canaria appeared to be a multi-colored Senegalese pirogue, a kind of long canoe, carrying some 200 people.
A rescue boat was launched but will take two hours to reach boat, the service said. The Atlantic migration route is one of the deadliest in the world, with nearly 800 people dying or going missing in the first half of 2023, according to Walking Borders. In recent years, the Canary Islands have become one of the main destinations for people trying to reach Spain, with a peak of more than 23,000 migrants arriving in 2020, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry.
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