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More than 60 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants capsized off Cape Verde in West Africa.
Praia: More than 60 people are believed to have died after the boat they were travelling on from Senegal capsized off Cape Verde, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday. An estimated 100 people, mostly from Senegal and Sierra Leone, were said to have been on board the boat and had been at sea for a month. At least 63 asylum seekers are thought to have died, while the 38 survivors include four children between the ages of 12 and 16, an IOM spokesperson told AFP.
According to reports, the long wooden fishing vessel was spotted on Monday (local time) in the Atlantic Ocean off west Africa, about 150 nautical miles (277 kilometres) from the Cape Verdean island of Sal. The vessel was located by a Spanish fishing boat, which alerted Cape Verdean authorities.
It was not immediately clear when the incident occurred, but according to survivors the boat left Senegal on 10 July with about 100 passengers on board. Emergency services have recovered the remains of seven people, the IOM spokesperson told AFP, while another 56 people are believed to be missing.
“We must open our arms and welcome the living and bury the dead with dignity,” Al Jazeera quoted Cape Verdean Health Minister Filomena Goncalves, citing the Inforpress news agency. The Spanish migration advocacy group Walking Borders said the vessel was a large fishing boat, called a pirogue, which had left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 refugees and migrants on board.
Thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing poverty and war risk their lives to make the dangerous journey each year. They often travel in modest boats or motorised canoes supplied by smugglers, who charge a fee for the journey, Al Jazeera reported.
At least 559 people died trying to reach the Canary Islands in 2022, according to figures from the IOM, while 126 people died or went missing on the same route in the first six months of this year with 15 shipwrecks recorded.
In January, rescue teams in Cape Verde saved about 90 refugees and migrants adrift in a canoe, while two others on board died. They were from Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone, as per Al Jazeera.
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