Scores Unaccounted For Following Vessel Transporting 200 Migrants Goes Down off the Gambian coast.
A minimum of seven souls have perished and a significant number are lost following a craft transporting about 200 migrants trying to get to European shores capsized near the shoreline of the Gambian coast, authorities say.
The vessel capsized on Wednesday midnight close to Jinack village in the North Bank area and it was afterwards located "stranded on a sandbar", the country's defence ministry stated in a release.
Ninety-six people have been saved to date and a search is continuing for the remaining passengers who were traveling on the shipwrecked vessel that was heading towards the Spanish Canary Islands.
The perilous journey over the Atlantic has emerged as a rising pathway for migrants from Africa trying to reach the EU.
Almost 47,000 individuals reached the Canaries in 2024 and data indicates in excess of 9,000 migrants perished during the journey.
Ongoing Mission
Following the Wednesday incident, the navy initiated a rescue mission, involving a number of military boats and a fishing vessel that came to assist, the defense officials said.
Authorities say some of the deceased are not from The Gambia and that their details are still being checked.
The bodies of the seven people who drowned were found, and 10 of those rescued are described as being in critical condition and undergoing emergency treatment.
A Common Migration Route
The Gambia is one of the routes taken by asylum seekers seeking to get to Europe, typically through perilous trips by sea and land.
Recently, the European Union has forged deals with several North African nations with the goal of curtailing undocumented migration.
