Boat found off Senegal's coast adds to mystery over migrant vessels reported missing

Refugees and migrants are rescued by members of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, after leaving Libya trying to reach European soil aboard an overcrowded rubber boat, north of the Libyan coast, May 6, 2018. (Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

DAKAR, Senegal -

A boat carrying migrants was found in distress off the coast of Senegal, and more than 90 passengers remained missing after 50 were rescued and seven were discovered dead, a fishermen's association reported Wednesday.

The boat was located in the Atlantic Ocean last Friday off the coast of the fishing city of Saint-Louis, which is on northern Senegal's border with Mauritania, according to Abdou Ndiaga Beye, the vice secretary of the Local Artisanal Fishing Council.

The dead people were all males, and police questioned the survivors rescued by Senegal's coast guard, who said the boat originally had carried 148 people, Beye told The Associated Press.

It was unclear if the vessel was one of three boats carrying a total of 300 people that Spanish aid group Walking Borders said went missing in late June after departing Senegal. However, some of the survivors were from the two towns where the three boats started their journeys.

The fishing council official's statements to the AP were the association's first public comments to an international media outlet since the July 7 rescue and come as a rising number of migrant boats are leaving Senegal for Spain's Canary Islands.

Earlier this week, Spanish authorities rescued 86 people from a boat near the Canary Islands that appeared to be from Senegal. At least 19 boats from Senegal have arrived in the Canary Islands since June, the Spanish aid group said.

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.

Factors such as ailing economies, a lack of jobs, extremist violence, political unrest and the impact of climate change push migrants to risk their lives on overcrowded boats to reach the Canaries. Last month in Senegal, at least 23 people were killed during weeks of protests between opposition supporters and police.

"There are always many many reasons why people feel forced to embark on what are extremely dangerous journeys," Judith Sunderland, Human Rights Watch's acting Europe and Central Asia deputy director, said.

"On any given boat, you'll have people fleeing economic hardships, domestic abuse, child marriage and other difficulties," Sunderland said. "In the case of Senegal. there may be people, like fishermen, leaving because they feel they can no longer make a living."

Earlier this week, Walking Borders said the three boats that left Senegal in late June were from Mbour, a coastal city in the country's center, and from the southern town of Kafountine.

The fisherman's society said everyone on last week's rescued boat was Senegalese and included people from Mbour and Kafountine.

But in a statement Tuesday, Senegal's foreign ministry said the Spanish aid group's information about missing migrants was "completely unfounded." It said 260 Senegalese were rescued at sea by Moroccan authorities between June 28 and July 9 and subsequently taken to Senegal's Consulate in Dakhla, a city in Western Sahara, to arrange for repatriation.

Officials in Morocco didn't respond to requests for comment but published the Senegalese foreign ministry's statement on its official news agency, MAP.

Parents who say their children departed on those boats are still searching for answers. Families frantically lined up outside the police station in Saint-Louis, the fishing village in northern Senegal, on Wednesday.

"I have heard there are dead bodies at the hospital," Abdou Mbow, the uncle of two missing men. His 19 and 24-year-old nephews left Mbour at the end of June in an attempt to pull their family out of poverty and haven't been heard from since.

"I need (authorities) to give me authorization to check the bodies and see if my nephews are among them," he said.