Senegal Govt Disputes Migrant Boat Sinking Death Toll

Dakar, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Oct, 2020 ) :Senegal's government said Friday that a death of toll of 140 people in a migrant boat sinking last week, cited by the International Office for Migration, was "unfounded".

The government previously said that about 10 people had died in the sinking last week, with about 60 people rescued.

But the UN body IOM on Thursday announced a toll of 140 people, based on interviews with members of the local communities the migrants departed from, who indicated that around 200 people were onboard.

"The interior ministry wants to make clear that the information is unfounded," the Senegalese government statement said on Friday, pointing out that two rescue operations took place last week.

"No deaths linked to these incidents have, for the moment, been established," the statement added.

The interior ministry nonetheless said that a fishing boat had this week discovered six dead bodies floating in the sea.

A spokesman for the IOM's regional office for West and Central Africa could not be reached for comment.

Senegalese government spokesperson Ndeye Ticke Ndiaye Diop this week pointed to a rise in migrant vessels departing from the country.

West Africans desperate to get to Europe have increasingly opted to take the Atlantic route to Spain's Canary Islands in recent years, as authorities have clamped down on crossings from Libya.

The archipelago lies more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the coast of Africa at its closest point, but the route is perilous.

At least 251 people died attempting the crossing between January 1 and September 17, according to the IOM, compared to 210 fatalities for the whole of last year.