Dozens Unaccounted For Following Craft Carrying 200 Asylum Seekers Goes Down near the coast of the Gambian coast.
A minimum of seven people have died and a significant number remain unaccounted for in the wake of a craft transporting about 200 migrants seeking to enter Europe sank off the coast of The Gambia, officials state.
The craft flipped in the early hours of Thursday close to the village of Jinack in the North Bank area and it was subsequently discovered "stranded on a sandbar", the nation's defense ministry said in a statement.
Nearly one hundred people were pulled to safety and a rescue operation continues for those still missing who were traveling on the sunken boat that was en route to Spain's Canary Islands.
The dangerous voyage over the Atlantic has become an increasingly common route for African migrants attempting to get to Europe.
Close to forty-seven thousand migrants made it to the Canary Islands in 2024 and estimates over 9,000 people have died trying.
Rescue Operation
In the aftermath of the disaster, The Gambian Navy launched a rescue mission, using a number of military boats and a fishing boat that offered help, the defence ministry confirmed.
Reports indicate a number of those who died are not Gambian nationals and that their identities are still being verified.
The bodies of the seven people who perished at sea have been retrieved, and a dozen of the saved are reported to be in critical condition and receiving urgent medical care.
A Common Migration Route
The Gambia is a common pathway utilized by asylum seekers seeking to get to the EU, often on hazardous voyages over water and land.
Over the past few years, the EU has forged deals with multiple North African nations designed to curtailing illegal migration.
