300 migrants from Senegal en route Canary Islands in three different boats have been reported to be missing. The boats set sail on June 27.
They started from Kafountine, a coastal town in southern Senegal that is roughly 1700 kms that is (1507 miles) from Tenerife in the Canary Islands archipelago.
The three boats have been missing for the past fifteen days and Spanish rescuers are on a rescue spree, reported BBC.
Halena Maleno, a local aide working for Walking Borders (a non-profit focusing on migrant aid) told Reuters that one boat contains 60 people while the other one carries 65, and the third one has more than 200 people in it. She said, “There are about 300 people from the same area of Senegal. They have left because of the instability in Senegal.”
The Atlantic migration route to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world and is typically used by migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to reach Spain, according to UN data. They use boats that could easily be tossed away by ferocious Atlantic waves.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told Spain’s Interior Ministry that 15,862 people had arrived irregularly in 2022 at the island in order to reach Spain.
"Despite the year-to-year decrease, flows along this dangerous route since 2020 remain high compared to prior years," the IOM said.
This is the third tragedy in the sea since the previous month following the Greek shipwreck that left over 80 dead and over 500 missing. Five passengers aboard the missing OceanGate Titan submersible died after it imploded during an expedition to see the wreck of the Titanic in the deep North Atlantic ocean last month.
A tragic route
2022 - 559 people including 22 children died in an attempt to reach Spain, according to IOM.
2021 - 1,286 deaths were reported on the route.