Dozens of Senegalese migrants are {dead} or lacking after their boat is rescued with 38 survivors

DAKAR, Senegal — A ship believed to have departed Senegal with greater than 100 migrants in early July has been rescued with 38 survivors and a number of other {dead} on board close to the Atlantic island nation of Cabo Verde, authorities and migrant advocates stated.

Senegal’s overseas affairs ministry stated the boat was rescued Tuesday by the coast guard in Cabo Verde, an island nation about 620 kilometers (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa. Authorities didn’t verify what number of migrants died, or what brought on the journey to fail.

The Spanish migration advocacy group Strolling Borders stated the vessel was a big fishing boat, referred to as a pirogue, which had left Senegal on July 10 with greater than 100 migrants on board.

Households in Fass Boye, a seaside city 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital Dakar, had reached out to Strolling Borders on July 20 after ten days with out listening to from family members on the boat, group founder Helena Maleno Garzón stated.

Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the native fishermen’s affiliation, stated he has two nephews among the many lacking. “They needed to go to Spain,” Boye stated.

The route from West Africa to Spain is without doubt one of the world’s most harmful, but the variety of migrants leaving from Senegal on rickety picket boats has surged over the previous yr.

Almost 1,000 migrants died whereas making an attempt to achieve Spain by sea within the first six months of 2023, the Strolling Borders group says. Components equivalent to youth unemployment, political unrest and the impression of local weather change push migrants to threat their lives on overcrowded boats.

On Aug. 7, the Moroccan navy recovered the our bodies of 5 Senegalese migrants and rescued 189 others after their boat capsized off the coast of Western Sahara.

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Related Press author Babacar Dione contributed to this report.