Dozens Unaccounted For After Boat Carrying Two Hundred Asylum Seekers Goes Down in waters off the Gambian coast.
No fewer than seven souls lost their lives and numerous others are lost in the wake of a vessel transporting around 200 migrants seeking to enter European shores capsized near the shoreline of the Gambian coast, authorities say.
The boat overturned late Wednesday night close to Jinack in the North Bank Region and it was later found "grounded on a sandbank", the Gambian military authorities stated in a release.
96 individuals were pulled to safety and a search is continuing for other passengers who were on board the shipwrecked vessel that was bound for the Spanish Canary Islands.
The dangerous voyage over the the Atlantic has become an increasingly common route for migrants from Africa attempting to get to Europe.
Almost forty-seven thousand migrants made it to the Canaries in 2024 and figures suggest in excess of 9,000 people perished in the attempt.
Rescue Operation
In the aftermath of the disaster, The Gambian Navy began a search-and-rescue operation, involving a number of military boats and a commercial fishing craft that offered help, the defense officials confirmed.
Officials state several of the victims are foreign nationals and that their details are still being checked.
The remains of the seven individuals who perished at sea have been retrieved, and 10 of those rescued are reported to be in grave health and getting immediate medical attention.
A Common Migration Route
Gambia is one of the routes taken by migrants trying to reach Europe, often on dangerous journeys across ocean and terrain.
Recently, the European bloc has forged deals with several North African countries with the goal of reducing undocumented migration.