Migrant boats sink: 39 dead off Senegal, 14 off Crete
At least 39 people died when a boat bound for the Canary Islands capsized off the Lompoul dunes, 180km north of Dakar, on Sunday; one person was rescued and 24 victims have been identified. Off Crete, a container ship spotted a boat early on Monday with 13 bodies aboard and 18 survivors, one of whom later died; the Greek coastguard rescued another 187 people from three boats the same day. Senegal’s president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, promised to “relentlessly continue the fight” against the organisers.
The Atlantic route to the Canaries has killed 635 people between January and May this year, by the count of the charity Walking Borders, and the islands are overwhelmed: more than 3,300 people in about 30 boats have reached El Hierro since 1 November, prompting the Canarian president, Fernando Clavijo, to call the situation “absolutely unsustainable”. Senegal intercepted a boat of 142 on Friday, including 23 women and two babies; nearly one in four young Senegalese is unemployed. The human-rights group ADHA said that despite €300,000 for the navy and the training of 300 agents, “it is no longer enough to deplore shipwrecks, announce measures and count interceptions”. In the Mediterranean, Crete has become the main Greek landing point, taking more than 22,000 of this year’s 86,400 arrivals in Europe by sea; eight more bodies were recovered from a boat on Saturday, its 28 Sudanese survivors brought ashore and two alleged smugglers, one aged 16, arrested. Frontex counts about 31,800 crossings on the central route in the first nine months, down 15%. Tolls differ by cut-off: the BBC gives 13 dead off Crete on Monday, AP 14 including the survivor who died. Watch Spain’s emergency declaration on El Hierro.