Scores Missing Following Boat Holding Two Hundred Asylum Seekers Goes Down near the coast of The Gambia.
At least seven individuals have died and a significant number are lost in the wake of a vessel carrying around 200 migrants trying to get to Europe overturned off the coast of Gambia, authorities say.
The vessel capsized on Wednesday midnight in the vicinity of the village of Jinack in the North Bank Region and it was later found "beached on a shoal", the Gambian military authorities said in a statement.
96 individuals were pulled to safety and a search is continuing for the remaining passengers who were on board the shipwrecked vessel that was bound for the Spanish Canary Islands.
The perilous journey over the Atlantic Ocean has grown into a more frequent path for migrants from Africa attempting to get to the EU.
Nearly forty-seven thousand migrants arrived at the Canary Islands in 2024 and figures suggest more than 9,000 people perished during the journey.
Ongoing Mission
In the aftermath of the disaster, the navy launched a rescue mission, involving several naval vessels and a fishing boat that came to assist, the defence ministry said.
Authorities say several of the victims are not from The Gambia and that their details are still being checked.
The bodies of the seven individuals who perished at sea have been retrieved, and 10 of those rescued are said to be in serious condition and undergoing emergency treatment.
A Frequent Pathway
Gambia is one of the routes utilized by asylum seekers attempting to enter Europe, typically through perilous trips across ocean and terrain.
Recently, the EU has established pacts with several Maghreb states with the goal of limiting illegal migration.
