An official at the International Organization for Migration suggested that 47 migrants died off the coast of Mauritania while trying to reach Europe on Monday, pointing out that seven others survived.
The official of the International Organization for Migration, Nicolas Auchar, said in a contact with Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that the boat sailed from El-Ayoun (Western Sahara) on August 3, heading to the Canary Islands (Spain), but it experienced a motor failure and ran aground for about two weeks before it was spotted on Monday. Mauritanian coast guard off Nouadhibou.
The official pointed out that “the trip, if everything goes well, takes a few days at most (…) from the moment the engine broke down, they found themselves without stocks” of water and food.
This very dangerous route that passes through the Atlantic Ocean and the west coast of Africa to the Canary Islands, the entry point to Europe, is one of the routes adopted each year by thousands of African migrants on primitive boats. At least 300 people have died or gone missing since the beginning of 2021 on the "Atlantic Route," according to Ushar.
