Search for several hundred migrants off the Canary Islands temporarily suspended

Spanish rescuers on Wednesday temporarily suspended searches for boats for migrants missing off the Canary Islands due to weather conditions. According to an NGO, three boats and about 300 people from Senegal are being sought. An information denied by the Senegalese authorities.

A Spanish Coast Guard vessel, October 16, 2021. (Illustration) AFP - JORGE GUERRERO

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According to Caminando Fronteras, an NGO that is a reference in terms of immigration from the African coast to the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries, three boats from Senegal carrying a total of more than 300 people are still missing, reports our correspondent, François Musseau.

Little information is currently available, as Spanish rescuers have temporarily suspended the search due to very difficult weather conditions that prevent the dispatch of a plane to fly over this part of the Atlantic. Spanish authorities say they are willing to make these flights at any time to try to locate these migrants.

The maritime area off the islands of Fuerteventura or Gran Canaria being huge, aerial overflight is the only solution for this type of maneuver which is generally done with the complicity of merchant ships.

Imbroglio

On Monday, Spanish rescuers rescued a drifting boat off the Canary Islands carrying 78 migrants. But according to the NGO Caminando Fronteras, this boat was not among the boats sought.

For its part, Senegal caused confusion on Tuesday over the fate of these migrants. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured that "the reports of the disappearance at sea of 300 Senegalese [...] (were) unfounded." He added that between June 28 and July 9, "260 Senegalese were rescued by the Moroccan coast guard," without specifying whether these rescued boats correspond to those that Caminando Fronteras had declared missing.

This Wednesday, the NGO persists and says that the people found during the rescues mentioned by the Senegalese authorities do not correspond to the 300 missing. It relies in particular on data transmitted to it by the Spanish, Moroccan and Mauritanian coastguards. Caminando Fronteras also continues to receive calls from families of missing persons.

In its statement, the NGO refuses to comment on the statement of the Senegalese authorities. "Common political practices in these situations," she writes. Caminando Fronteras nevertheless asks that the search be intensified to find the disappeared, a significant number of whom are children.

" READ ALSO Senegal: faced with the departures of migrants, the mayor of Kafountine calls for an "economic response"

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• Senegal
• Spain
• Immigration
• International migration