Many feared missing after Senegal migrant shipwreck
17 Dec 2006 13:29:40 GMT Source: Reuters
By Diadie Ba DAKAR, Dec 17 (Reuters) - A boat carrying West African migrants trying to reach Spain was wrecked in northern Senegal at the weekend and 24 of its occupants were rescued, but many more were reported missing, officials said on Sunday. They said they could not confirm accounts by some survivors that up to 100 more illegal migrants may have been on board the boat, which was driven ashore by bad weather on Saturday near Saint-Louis, 320 km (200 miles) north of the capital Dakar. Local fishermen from the village of Gandoul picked up 24 survivors who were taken to hospital in Saint-Louis, where doctors treated them for dehydration and exhaustion. It was the second wreck in Senegal in less than a week involving a boat carrying migrants heading for the Spanish Canary Islands. Well over 25,000 clandestine job-seekers have landed in the Canaries this year in rickety wooden fishing boats. The influx forced Spain to launch a diplomatic offensive in West Africa to try to halt the migrants, hundreds of whom drown every year in the dangerous crossings. Senegalese Navy Lieutenant Mohamadou Moustapha Sylla told Reuters the open boat wrecked on Saturday had left Djifer in southern Senegal two weeks ago. "They were heading for Spain and had to turn back because of bad weather," said Sylla, who acts as spokesman for the joint Senegalese-European Union anti-migrant patrols that have been operating since September along Senegal's Atlantic coastline. "I can't tell you how many people were on board," he added, when asked about the reports from some survivors that dozens more from the boat were missing. On Wednesday, another boat with 29 migrants aboard was wrecked at Yoff, close to Dakar. Survivors said that after 16 days struggling to reach the Canaries they had been turned back by the wind and the waves. Dozens of people had drowned, the survivors said. Authorities say survivors' accounts, especially the numbers aboard the wrecked boats, are often hard to verify. As Spain and its EU allies, in cooperation with Morocco, Cape Verde, Mauritania and Senegal, have intensified coastal interception patrols, this has pushed migrant departures further down Africa's Atlantic coast, increasing the risk of the voyage. "Weather conditions are very difficult at the moment," Senegal's Sylla said. Earlier this month, Senegal agreed to a six-month extension of the EU border patrols along its coast during a visit by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Zapatero announced 20 million euros ($26.6 million) in aid to Senegal as part of Spanish moves to assist West African countries that agree to cooperate to stem the flood of migrants.
