At least 140 Europe-bound migrants have drowned off the coast of Senegal in the deadliest shipwreck recorded this year, the United Nations migration agency said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The boat carrying 200 passengers caught fire and capsized on Saturday a few hours after leaving the fishing town of Mbour, 100km (62 miles) south of the capital, Dakar, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.<\/p>\n
The Senegalese and Spanish navies and fishermen rescued some 60 people, but \u201cat least 140 people have drowned\u201d, the IOM said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The perilous sea passage from West Africa to the Canary Islands was once a major route for those seeking an escape from poverty. Attempts became scarcer when Spain stepped up patrols in the mid-2000s, but the route is seeing a surge this year.<\/p>\n
Senegal\u2019s government and the IOM arranged a mission to travel to Saint-Louis to assess the needs of survivors and provide immediate psycho-social assistance.<\/p>\n
The number of departures from West Africa to the Canary Islands has significantly increased in recent weeks, with 14 boats carrying 663 migrants in September alone, according to the IOM.<\/p>\n
Of these departures, 26 percent were reported to have experienced an incident or shipwreck, the organisation said.<\/p>\n
There have been roughly 11,000 arrivals to the Canary Islands this year, compared to 2,557 arrivals during the same period last year, IOM statistics showed.<\/p>\n
Some 414 people are known to have died along this route in 2020, up from 210 fatalities in 2019.<\/p>\n