A boat carrying migrants and refugees from The Gambia is rescued after drifting at sea for 25 days, as UNHCR renews its warning over the dangers of the Atlantic route to Spain’s Canary Islands.
By Francesca Merlo
At least 143 refugees and migrants are dead or missing after a boat attempting to reach Europe became stranded off the coast of Mauritania, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
The vessel had departed from Bafuloto, in The Gambia, and was rescued on the 18th of July after drifting at sea for 25 days. It reached the Mauritanian port of Nouadhibou carrying 38 survivors and the bodies of some of those who had died during the crossing.
Among the survivors were two children who lost all their family members during the journey and are now recovering in hospital, UNHCR spokesperson Matt Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva. Mauritania’s coastguard said the vessel had left The Gambia with 160 people on board before running out of fuel. It put the number of people missing at 122.
The victims come from countries across sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNHCR. No further details have been released regarding the circumstances of their deaths.
Hundreds rescued
The tragedy came despite three separate rescue operations off Mauritania between the 14th and the 18th of July, in which 387 people were brought to safety from other boats in distress. One person died aboard another vessel that disembarked in Mauritania on 14 July.
UNHCR described the Atlantic route to Spain’s Canary Islands as “one of the world’s deadliest,” with those attempting the journey facing long distances in overcrowded and often unseaworthy vessels.
The agency called for greater access to education and employment in countries of origin and transit, in order to provide viable alternatives to dangerous sea crossings.
Mauritania remains a major point of departure along the Atlantic route, travelled each year by tens of thousands of people hoping to reach the Canary Islands. Although arrivals have fallen amid tighter border controls supported by the European Union, departures have increasingly shifted farther south, making an already perilous journey longer and potentially more deadly.
Pope Leo’s appeal for compassion
The latest tragedy comes less than three weeks after Pope Leo visited the Italian island of Lampedusa, a major arrival point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
During his pastoral visit on the 4th of July, the Pope prayed at the cemetery where migrants who died at sea are buried, stopped at the “Gateway to Europe” monument, and met migrants at Favaloro Pier. Celebrating Mass, he condemned the brutal treatment suffered by migrants and refugees and urged the international community to respond concretely and compassionately to the “enormity of suffering.”
The Pope has repeatedly called for migrants to be treated not as numbers or problems to be solved, but as people whose dignity, individual stories and fundamental rights must be respected.
