More than 140 people last week died when a vessel carrying about 200 migrants sank off Senegal, in the deadliest shipwreck recorded so far this year, the International Office for Migration (IOM) said in a statement on Thursday.
The Senegalese authorities had previously given a toll of at least 10 dead, while 60 people had been rescued.
“Local communities have told us that there were about 200 people on board, which means that 140” died at least, IOM Dakar spokeswoman Aissatou Sy, told reporters, explaining how the toll had been calculated.
The agency said that it was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy, which followed the sinking of four boats in the central Mediterranean last week, and another in the English Channel.
“We call for unity between governments, partners and the international community to dismantle trafficking and smuggling networks that take advantage of desperate youth,” IOM Senegal chief of mission Bakary Doumbia said in the statement.
On Monday, the Senegalese government sounded the alarm about a “resurgence” of migrants trying to reach Europe via a perilous route in the eastern Atlantic — the crossing to Spain’s Canary Islands.
The archipelago lies more than 100km from the coast of Africa at its closest point, and the passage is typically made in traditional wooden boats that are usually crammed and poorly maintained.
In the latest case, the vessel left Mbour, a coastal town in western Senegal, on Saturday before a fire broke out onboard a few hours later, the IOM said.
It capsized near the coastal town of Saint-Louis, on the country’s northwestern coast, the agency said.
The Senegalese government on Monday said that the fire begun among fuel drums.
The Atlantic route has been used more and more as authorities have clamped down on the other main migration route in West Africa, which goes northward by road through the Sahara in Niger and Libya to the Mediterranean coast.
At least 414 people this year have died on the Atlantic route, said the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, which recorded 210 fatalities there last year.
About 11,000 migrants this year have arrived on the Canary Islands, compared with 2,557 in the same period last year, although that remains below the peak of more than 32,000 arrivals in 2006, the IOM said.
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