Hundreds missing: refugee boat missing on its way to Tenerife

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Spanish rescuers search the waters around the Canary Islands for a boat carrying at least 200 African migrants who disappeared more than a week ago. According to the aid organization “Walking Borders”, the fishing boat left the Senegalese coastal town of Kafountine on June 27 towards the Canary Islands. Kafountine is about 1700 kilometers from Tenerife.

According to the Spanish news agency Efe, “Walking Borders” stated that there were many children on board. Two similar boats with dozens of other people were said to be missing. The Spanish sea rescue service announced that an aircraft had joined the search.

There are only a few details about the other two boats. The Reuters news agency quoted Helena Maleno of “Walking Borders” as saying there were about 65 people on board on one board and up to 60 on the other, bringing the total missing on the three boats to over 300.

Dangerous journey across the ocean

A migrant boat sank a few weeks ago. The overcrowded trawler had sunk off the coast of Greece. About 80 people drowned and hundreds of people are still missing.

The journey from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the most dangerous routes for migrants, not least because they usually travel in simple hollowed-out fishing boats that are easily tossed about by strong Atlantic currents.

Thousands of illegal migrants in the Canary Islands

At least 559 people died at sea trying to reach the Spanish islands last year, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM). The death toll stood at 1126 in 2021.

The IOM quotes Spain’s Interior Ministry as saying that 15,682 people arrived irregularly in the Canary Islands in 2022, a 30% drop from 2021. “Despite the year-on-year decline, flows along this dangerous route have continued to decline since 2020 high compared to previous years,” says the IOM. (nad)

Source: Blick