Senegal: 300 migrants heading to the Canary Islands still missing

Three migrant boats, declared missing by the NGO off the Canary Islands, are still nowhere to be found, as Spanish rescuers did not locate any boats in the area on Tuesday.

“Every minute counts to find more than 300 people alive on Senegalese canoes (…). We need more research and better collaboration between Mauritania, Spain and Morocco,’ Caminando Fronteras founder Helena Maleno stressed on Twitter on Tuesday 11 July.

Three boats departed two weeks ago from Kafountine, a coastal town in southern Senegal, carrying more than 300 migrants heading to the Spanish Canary Islands, are still missing. “The plane searched the area and found nothing” on Tuesday, the Spanish sea rescue service said.

Spain’s sea rescue service, which on Monday helped migrants drifting off the Canary Islands, requested help from boats sailing in the area and sent one of its planes over this part of the Atlantic Ocean

On Monday, the mayor of Kafountine confirmed to AFP that migrants were leaving, and he had no news of this. He said that among them were Senegalese but also “Gambians, Guineans, Sierra Leoneans…”

Senegal, and particularly the south of the country, is one of the departure points for illegal migrants to Europe.