Around 200 illegal migrants were arrested on board a pirogue off Saint-Louis, Senegal, on a route that is increasingly being used to reach Europe, despite deadly shipwrecks, the Senegalese army said.
This interception was the latest in a long series in recent months. Last week, the Armed Forces Public Relations Directorate reported that more than 250 ‘irregular migrants’ from various African countries had been intercepted, also on board a pirogue.
At least 25 people died in a shipwreck on Monday off the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, according to the Mauritanian Information Agency, and at the beginning of July around 90 migrants died when their boat sank further south, with dozens of people still to be found.
The Atlantic route is particularly dangerous due to the strong currents and the fact that migrants travel in overloaded boats, sometimes unseaworthy and usually without drinking water.
Despite this, it is increasingly used by young people looking for a future in Europe that their own countries cannot offer them, due to the increased vigilance in the Mediterranean.
More than 5,000 people died trying to reach Spain by sea in the first five months of the year, or 33 deaths a day, according to the Spanish non-governmental organization Caminando Fronteras.
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