Sixty migrants feared dead at sea off Cape Verde coast after spending a month adrift trying to reach Spain
17 August 2023, 07:56
More than 60 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants was found off Cape Verde in West Africa.
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The boat left Senegal in West Africa over one month ago with more than 100 people aboard, authorities said.
Senegal's foreign affairs ministry said the boat was found with 38 survivors and multiple dead on board by the coast guard about 620 kilometres (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa.
Children aged between 12 and 16 were among the survivors.
Authorities did not confirm how many migrants died, or what caused the trip to fail.
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The large wooden fishing boat, called a pirogue, was found drifting almost 200 miles off Sal, a part of Cape Verde, by a Spanish fishing boat, which then alerted authorities, police said.
Health Minister Filomena Goncalves said: "We know that migration issues are global issues, which require international co-operation, a lot of discussion and global strategy.
"We all - all the nations - have to sit down at the table and see what we can do so that we don't lose any more lives at sea, above all."
The boat left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 migrants on board.
Families in Fass Boye, a seaside town 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital Dakar, had reached out to Walking Borders on July 20 after 10 days without hearing from loved ones on the boat, group founder Helena Maleno Garzon said.
Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the local fishermen's association, said he has two nephews among the missing.
"They wanted to go to Spain," he said.
The route from West Africa to Spain is one of the world's most dangerous, yet the number of migrants leaving from Senegal on rickety wooden boats has surged over the past year.
Nearly 1,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of 2023, Walking Borders says.
