Senegal sounds alarm over migration surge after boat disaster

Senegal’s government has said it is worried about a “resurgence” of migrants hoping to reach Europe, after a disaster off the West African nation’s coast last week claimed lives.

In a statement published Monday, government spokesperson Ndeye Ticke Ndiaye Diop pointed to a rise in migrant vessels intercepted by the Senegalese navy this month.

On Friday, fuel drums aboard one of these traditional wooden boats caught fire 80 kilometres (49 miles) off the southern city of Mbour, the statement said.

The incident caused the death of “more than 10 youngsters”, Senegalese President Macky Sall said on Twitter, although local press reports put the death toll at several dozen people.

AFP was unable to independently confirm the number of dead.

Senegal’s navy said that it rescued 51 people, without specifying the original number of people aboard the boat.

“The government has noted with regret the resurgence of clandestine emigration by sea,” the statement said, adding that patrols had rescued 388 people at sea between October 7 and Friday alone.

West Africans desperate to get to Europe have increasingly opted to take the Atlantic route to Spain’s Canary Islands in recent years, as authorities have clamped down on crossings from Libya.

The archipelago lies more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the coast of Africa at its closest point, but the route is perilous.

At least 251 people died attempting the crossing between January 1 and September 17, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), compared to 210 fatalities for the whole of last year.

-‘A mirage, often death’-

The latest disaster at sea caused outrage in Senegal, a poor nation of some 16 million people, generating significant comment in the press and on social media.

Alluding to President Sall, former prime minister Abdoul Mbaye urged on Twitter against letting young people “depart towards a mirage, and often death” on Twitter.

“Please stop driving our youths towards despair with poor governance, corruption and injustice,” he added.

The reason behind the increase in attempted crossings is unclear.

However revenues in key sectors such as fishing and tourism have plummeted since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March.

– ‘Only one choice’ –

On Tuesday, Mauritania’s national news agency AMI said the coastguard had rescued 295 people off the desert country’s coast this week.

Would-be migrants, many of them Senegalese, had been attempting the crossing in two separate vessels, but both encountered engine trouble. Coastguards discovered two dead bodies in one of the vessels.

In the northern Senegalese city of Saint-Louis, several families told AFP that they had heard no news from 14 of their relatives aboard the vessel that caught fire on Friday, and had started mourning.

Ousmane Djigo, a Saint-Louis resident, said his brother boarded the vessel after his friends told him he would arrive in Spain without problems.

“There was only one choice left to my big brother, to emigrate to earn a living,” he said.