Spanish rescuers have intensified search off the Canary Islands for a boat loaded with at least 200 African migrants who went missing more than a week ago.
Walking Borders, an aid group leading the search says the fishing boat sailed from Kafountine, a coastal town in southern Senegal that is approximately 1,700km.
The rescue team says many children are on board the boat carrying about 200 people. It left Kafountine on June 27, heading for the Canary Islands.
Two other boats also went missing after it capsized. Reuters news agency quoted Helena Maleno of Walking Borders as saying that one has about 65 people on board, the other up to 60, which bring the total number of people missing across the three boats to more than 300.
Few weeks ago, at least 78 people were involved in Mediterranean shipwrecks, when an overcrowded trawler sank off the Greek coast but the UN reported that up to 500 were still missing.
The voyage from West Africa to the Canary Islands is among the most dangerous routes for migrants, not least because they usually sail in simple dugout fishing boats that are easily tossed by powerful Atlantic currents.
In 2022, at least 559 people died at sea attempting to reach the Spanish islands, the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says. The death toll for 2021 was 1,126.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said 15,682 people arrived irregularly in the Canary Islands in 2022, a decrease of 30% compared to 2021.
