DAKAR, Senegal — Eight migrants were found dead after a boat capsized off the coast of northern Senegal as it tried to reach Europe, the government said.
The bodies were recovered by the fire department and the navy and a search for survivors has been launched, Senegalese Interior Minister Felix Abdoulaye Diome said Thursday in the northern fishing city of Saint-Louis where the bodies were brought.
The director of the morgue in Saint-Louis, Mourtalla Mbaye, told The Associated Press that approximately 155 people were on board and many of the survivors were injured and receiving treatment in a military zone in the city.
Six bodies were brought to his morgue — all were men who drowned. It was unclear how many people survived and how many were still missing, he said.
The boat, rescued Wednesday evening, comes days after seven others were found dead and 50 were rescued on a different vessel also bound for Europe and discovered off the coast of Saint-Louis. At least 90 people are feared missing from that boat.
It also comes after an announcement by Spanish aid group Walking Borders that around 300 people went missing in late June when three boats departed Senegal from two different cities.
The Atlantic migration route is one of the deadliest in the world, with nearly 800 people dying or going missing in the first half of 2023, according to Walking Borders.
In recent years, the Canary Islands have become one of the main destinations for people trying to reach Spain, with a peak of more than 23,000 migrants arriving in 2020, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry. In the first six months of this year, more than 7,000 migrants and refugees reached the Canaries.
The boats mainly travel from Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania, with fewer coming from Senegal. However, at least 19 boats from Senegal have arrived in the Canary Islands since June, the Spanish aid group said.
Factors such as ailing economies, a lack of jobs, extremist violence, political unrest and the…
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