ARCHIVED - Tragedy in the Atlantic as 47 migrants die en route to the Canaries
Only seven of the 54 people who set sail on August 3 were picked up alive by Mauritanian coastguards
Seldom have the topics of illegal immigration and refugees been so prominent in the Spanish press as they are at present, with attention focussed on the arrival on Thursday morning of the first evacuees from Kabul since the Taliban occupied the capital of Afghanistan and on Spain’s policy of repatriating unaccompanied minors who crossed into the north African enclave of Ceuta in May, and at the same time the flow of Africans attempting to travel on board small boats to the Canary Islands is continuing.
The Atlantic crossing from western Africa to the Canaries is a long and perilous one, and another tragedy has come to light this week with the news that 47 would-be migrants died of hunger and starvation on board their boat after drifting off the coast of Nuadibú in Mauritania for two weeks. Eventually, the boat was spotted and picked up by the Mauritanian coastguard, but by that time only seven of the people on board were still alive – six men and one woman, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The survivors informed the authorities that a total of 54 people from Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Guinea had set sail, including two infants and one adolescent, and it is believed that they did so from the region of El Aaiún in Western Sahara on August 3. However, the onboard motor broke down and they were left to drift until being spotted by the coastguards.
According to the IOM at least 370 people are known to have lost their lives while attempting to enter EU territory by undertaking journeys of this kind from western Africa to the Canaries so far this year, but the actual figure could be far higher as survivors usually dispose of the bodies of the deceased by throwing them overboard.
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