More than 60 people are believed to have died after a boat carrying them from Senegal capsized in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Verde, the authorities said this week. A Spanish fisherman found the boat floating about 150 miles north of Sal, one of the islands that make up Cape Verde, according to the country’s national police.
The boat capsized after leaving Fass Boye, a fishing village about 90 miles north of Dakar, the Senegalese capital, on July 10. Thirty-eight people survived the accident, including four children, a spokeswoman for the U.N. migration agency said, adding that seven people had been confirmed dead and 56 others were still missing and presumed dead.
Smugglers have been piling migrants into poorly constructed or overcrowded boats to make the crossing to re Europe from their home countries in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. Many of the migrants take immense risks to escape war and poverty at home, while European countries seek to block the migrants before they reach their shores.
At least 778 migrants died along the West African route to Spain during the first half of the year, according to the Spanish migrant advocacy group Walking Borders.
