The Senegalese navy discovered at least 30 decomposing bodies of suspected migrants on a fishing boat, military authorities said on Monday.
The boat was drifting approximately 70 kilometers off the coast of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa.
The recovery and identification of the deceased are challenging due to advanced state of decomposition. Investigations are ongoing to determine where, when, and with how many people the boat departed, a military statement posted on social media channels said.
From Senegal and its neighboring states in West Africa, people regularly embark on the more than 1,500-kilometer journey across the Atlantic to Spain’s Canary Islands.
At the beginning of September, a boat capsized shortly after departing from the Senegalese city of Mbour, south of Dakar. Rescuers recovered 39 bodies with dozens more feared dead. In the past three months, the navy reported intercepting over 1,700 people attempting to leave on boats.
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According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, more than 19,000 migrants reached the Canary Islands from the West African coastline stretching from Guinea to Morocco in the first half of 2024.
This is significantly more than in the first half of 2023. A record number of around 40,000 people reached the Canaries during the entire year.
–dpa (TNS)
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