(Image via wionews.com)
Staff Writer: Akshit Bagga
Email: abagga@umassd.edu
Senegal’s navy found at least 30 decomposing bodies on a boat drifting approximately 43 miles (70 kilometers) off the coast of Dhakar, the country’s capital city.
On the evening of September 22, 2024, the Senegal military deployed a patrol boat after receiving information about a vessel floating 38 nautical miles from Dhakar. When they towed the mysterious boat to the port the following day, authorities declared that at least 30 decomposing bodies were present on the wooden canoe.
A joint team consisting of doctors, fire service personnel, and sanitation workers helped to identify the mysterious circumstances and collect evidence from the deceased after the boat reached the shore.
The army’s spokesperson, Ibrahima Sow, mentioned in a statement, “Recovery, identification, and transfer operations are being made extremely delicate by the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies.” He added, “So far, 30 bodies have been counted.”
People are leaving West Africa in search of better lives because of the conflicts brewing in the country, including poverty and lack of better jobs. Most of them illegally head to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa that acts as a gateway to Europe.
The statistical data released by Spain’s interior ministry shows a sharp rise in emigration, as large as 126% compared to last year. At least 22,300 immigrants have arrived in the Canary Islands this year, and these numbers are anticipated to rise before the end of the year.
According to Senegalese authorities, a boat carrying at least 89 people capsized off the coast of Senegal during the last month. The incident killed at least 37 people while the authorities rescued others.
During July, a dozen people died, and at least 150 went missing in the rough sea waters after a boat ferrying more than 300 migrants capsized. As a part of a crackdown on illegal immigration, the Senegalese army arrested 453 migrants and a few members associated with the human smuggling network in August.
This operation was a part of their 12-day patrolling drive.
Only last month, Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, met Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye during his tri-nation visit to Africa.
In their attempt to address growing concerns of illegal migration and promote fair and legal job opportunities for the people of West Africa, the two leaders signed agreements to provide temporary jobs and training in Spain for legal migrants.
During his visit, Pedro Sánchez said, “Regulated migration benefits us all.” He added, “It vaccinates us against those who make business out of irregularity, like the mafias, and against those who use it as an excuse to spread hatred and xenophobia in our societies.”
While no comment was available from the Senegalese government authorities on the recent mysterious boat incident, President Bassirou Faye had previously stated that his government is concerned by the massive departures of migrants from Senegalese coasts leaving for Spain but that alongside repressive measures, it is necessary to combat the root causes of migration.
The Atlantic route, which migrants take from West Africa to the Canary Islands in Spain, is considered one of the deadliest illegal immigration routes in the world. Undertaking this journey, people cross the Sahara Desert’s sands and the Mediterranean Sea’s depths to reach Europe.
While minimal information about the number of people trekking on this journey makes it tough to get an exact toll of the number of deaths, Walking Borders, a Spanish migrants’ rights group, estimates that thousands of people have died in this year alone trying to cross from Africa to the Canary Islands via the deserts and seas.
Boubacar Sèye, who is the president of Horizons Sans Frontières, an NGO awareness group that raises awareness on the effects of illegal immigration, said in a statement to BBC that “given the recurrence of this type of tragedy, we can say that this is no longer a cyclical phenomenon, but rather a structural one.” He added, “To stop this, we need to attack the problem at source with new ways of raising awareness in the most vulnerable areas.”
With rising poverty, declining jobs, and conflicts in the country, people search for better lives. It is high time that governments around the world take strict measures to collaborate to create brighter futures through affordable opportunities.