Credit: REUTERS
At least 63 migrants from Senegal are feared to have died after a fishing boat transporting them sank at the coast of Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean, Aljazeera reports.
This was disclosed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokeswoman Safa Msehli on Wednesday.
“We must open our arms and welcome the living and bury the dead with dignity,” said Cape Verdean Health Minister Filomena Goncalves, as quoted by the Inforpress news agency.
The vessel, according to the Spanish migration advocacy group Walking Borders, was a big fishing boat known as a pirogue that left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 refugees and migrants on board.
Families in Fass Boye, a beach hamlet 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of Dakar, contacted Walking Borders on July 20 after 10 days of not hearing from loved ones on the boat, according to Walking Borders founder Helena Maleno Garzón.
Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the local fishermen’s association, said two of his nephews were missing. “They wanted to go to Spain,” Boye said.
According to the AFP news agency, Jose Rui Moreira, a health officer in Sal, seven survivors needed to be transferred to the hospital.
Cape Verde, an island republic roughly 620 kilometres (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa, is located on the maritime migration route to the Spanish Canary Islands, which serve as a gateway to the European Union.
Every year, thousands of refugees and migrants escaping poverty and violence risk their lives to undertake the perilous voyage.
They frequently go in small boats or powered canoes provided by smugglers who demand a fee for the trip.
In January, rescuers in Cape Verde rescued roughly 90 refugees and migrants stranded on a canoe, while two more perished on board.
They came from Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone, among other places.