The Senegalese Navy has revealed that it had intercepted two wooden boats ferrying about 272 would-be migrants, 100 km (approx. 60 miles) off the coast of the capital city, Dakar on Friday, September 29.
Seven kids and sixteen women were among the passengers who were brought back to a navy base in Dakar, according to an online post shared on Saturday, September 30.
The article had included a photo of a colourfully painted fishing vessel on the open ocean, jam-packed with individuals with no shelter from the elements.
A great number of migrants attempt to cross the hundreds of miles of ocean splitting Africa from Europe each year, in a frantic search for a supposedly better life. The peak period for these crossings is in Summer.
About 559 people has died trying to reach the Canary Islands in 2022, while 126 people perished or went missing on the same route in the first six months of this year, with 15 shipwrecks documented, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Back in August, only 37 persons had survived after a migrant boat conveying 101 people from Senegal had been lost in the ocean without fuel for several weeks.
