Over 60 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants was found off the coast of Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean.
The boat embarked from Senegal on July 10 with 101 passengers on board. On Tuesday, Senegal’s foreign ministry issued a statement confirming that 38 individuals had been successfully rescued.
Most people aboard the boat, which had been at sea for more than a month, are believed to have been from Senegal.
Cape Verde officials are urging worldwide cooperation on migration to mitigate the ongoing loss of lives effectively.
The Atlantic migration route, utilized by African migrants aiming to reach Spain via the Canary Islands from the West African coast, is one of the most perilous routes globally. Its peak activity occurs during the summer months.
“Safe and regular pathways to migration are sorely lacking, which gives room to smugglers and traffickers to put people on these deadly journeys,” said IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli as cited by Reuters.
In 2022, 559 lives were tragically lost while attempting to reach the Canary Islands. Shockingly, the first half of this year saw 126 more individuals perish or go missing on the same route. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded an alarming 15 shipwrecks in this timeframe.
A boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Senegal’s capital Dakar in late July, leading to the tragic drowning of at least 15 people.
