A Spanish tuna boat, the Zillarri, found a long wooden fishing vessel drifting in the Atlantic about 150 nautical miles from the Cape Verdean island of Sal. Police said it was spotted on Monday. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday that at least 63 of the people who left Senegal on it are believed to have died.
Thirty-eight survived, among them four children aged 12 to 16. Emergency services recovered the remains of seven people, and 56 more are believed missing. “Generally, when people are reported missing following a shipwreck, they are presumed dead,” an IOM spokesperson said.
Early reports said the boat had sunk. Authorities later clarified it was found afloat.
A month at sea
Survivors said the boat left Senegal on July 10 with about 100 people on board, bound for Spain’s Canary Islands. Senegal’s foreign ministry said 37 of the rescued were Senegalese and one came from Guinea-Bissau.
Families in the seaside town of Fass Boye contacted the Spanish group Walking Borders on July 20, after ten days without word from relatives on the boat. Helena Maleno Garzón, who founded the group, said the vessel was a large pirogue carrying more than 100 people.
Cheikh Awa Boye, who heads the local fishermen’s association, has two nephews among the missing. “They wanted to go to Spain,” he said.
On the shore
A health official in Sal, Jose Rui Moreira, told AFP that seven survivors needed hospital treatment. Cape Verdean Health Minister Filomena Goncalves, quoted by the Inforpress news agency, said: “We must open our arms and welcome the living and bury the dead with dignity.”
Cape Verde sits roughly 600 kilometres off the West African coast on the sea route to the Canary Islands. The IOM counted at least 559 deaths on that route in 2022. In the first six months of 2023, 126 people died or went missing, with 15 shipwrecks recorded. In July, another 15 people drowned when a boat capsized off Dakar.
“Safe and regular pathways to migration are sorely lacking, which is what gives room to smugglers and traffickers to put people on these deadly journeys,” the IOM said.
On August 21, 37 of the 38 survivors were repatriated to Senegal. The last one was not yet well enough to travel.
Sources
- 2023 Cape Verde migrant boat disaster – Wikipedia
- At least 63 people feared dead after boat found off Cape Verde
- More than 60 people feared dead after boat found off Cape Verde
Sources
- 2023 Cape Verde migrant boat disaster – Wikipedia
- At least 63 people feared dead after boat found off Cape Verde
