Senegal's navy intercepted 118 people trying to leave the country on a boat on Wednesday. The military said there has been a series of such interceptions of migrants hoping to reach Europe in recent weeks, with as many as a 1,000 migrants trying to leave in the past two weeks.
A navy patrol boat intercepted a boat with 118 people off its coast near the northern city Saint-Louis, located by the border with Mauritania.
The navy said that the passengers would be send to the capital Dakar the same day but didn’t share any further details.
More than a thousand migrants have been stopped from leaving the country in the past two weeks, with the majority of the activity concentrating on the country’s north -- the closest place to reach Spain’s Canary Islands from the Senegalese coast.
This comes after widespread anger and resentment in the country against authorities accused of not doing enough to save lives at sea.
Read more: Canary Islands overwhelmed by increase in arrivals
A perilous journey
The distance from Senegal’s north to the Spanish archipelago measures about 1,500 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, and is considered to be an extremely dangerous -- and even deadly -- sea crossing.
Last month, over 60 Senegalese migrants died after running into problems off the coast of Cape Verde.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that since the start of 2023, over 300 people have perished trying to reach the Canaries from West Africa. The actual number of victims, however, could even be considerably higher, as many shipwrecks go unreported.
At the same time, Senegal is considered to be a relatively safe and stable country amid a number of volatile nations in West Africa, with most Senegalese migrants arriving in Europe eventually being denied asylum and sent back home.
Read more: Senegal: Is political crisis pushing more migrants to depart?
Still, thousands of people try to reach the EU, seeking better opportunities. In addition to Senegalese nationals, many other Africans also depart on perilous sea journeys from the country’s coast, making Senegal both a transit country and a land of departure.
About 60,000 migrants try to reach Europe from Africa’s Western coasts each year, with only about a quarter succeeding in 2022. Of all the boats that managed to reach the Canaries that year, only three had departed from Senegal.
The majority of boats leaving for the archipelago leave from Morocco and the Moroccan-administered Western Sahara.
Read more: 'Thousands of kilometers alone': Unaccompanied child migrants arriving in Europe
with AFP