Crowded vessel sinks off Senegal: 80 migrants dead
ST. LOUIS, Senegal -- A fishing boat crowded with more than 100 African migrants capsized at least twice while sailing to Spain's Canary Islands, spilling passengers and leaving scores dead as survivors drifted for about 10 days without food or water, officials said yesterday .
The boat sank off Senegal's coast Saturday and a Red Cross official said at least 80 migrants died. Fishermen rescued about two dozen people in the water near St. Louis, and about 12 were hospitalized yesterday at the health clinic in this northern Senegal town.
Deep poverty drives thousands to make the treacherous sea journey to Spanish lands where they believe jobs await. Fishing boats with a single outboard motor carry 40 or 50 people -- and sometimes more -- on trips that can take weeks.
"If he took all these risks, it's because he saw the situation his family was in," said Awa Sow, whose son Souleymane was hospitalized. "I have prayed and prayed for him. Maybe my prayers helped him come back."
An official of the Spanish Red Cross said the death toll was preliminary and could be revised upward as interviews with survivors in St. Louis continued. It was unclear if any bodies had been recovered.
The boat left Dec. 4 near the southern Senegalese town of Djiffer, about 180 miles from St. Louis, said Lieutenant Mohamadou Moustapha Sylla, spokesman for a European-Senegalese task force working to stop the tide of illegal migrants heading to Spain's Canary Islands in an attempt to gain a toehold in Europe.
Health officials said the boat capsized at least twice, spilling passengers into the water, and then drifted for about 10 days. Survivors had no food or water, said Demba Dieng, a health worker at the hospital.
All the migrants rescued were dehydrated and undernourished after days at sea, Senegalese officials said. Thousands of illegal migrants have reached the Canary Islands this year -- many leaving from coastal African countries such as Senegal and Mauritania. Hundreds have died this year in their attempts to navigate rough seas in their open, outboard-powered craft.
I think we all should take a minute and accept our responsabilities.
life in senegal is getting harder and harder there is almost no middle class anymore, at the same time brothers and sisters that are out of the country make it look like it is easy in europe or usa, they come in vacation and spend lavishly but aloso easily , entertaining the dream of an inexixten eldorado, i do not want to talk about the Jet Set in dakar, the 25 million houoses being build, the lincoln navigators cars being driven in dakar.
So let face it and talk communicate and find some others outlets for all those brothers dreaming for a better live.
Que la terre leur soit legere.
I think we all should take a minute and accept our responsabilities.
life in senegal is getting harder and harder there is almost no middle class anymore, at the same time brothers and sisters that are out of the country make it look like it is easy in europe or usa, they come in vacation and spend lavishly but aloso easily , entertaining the dream of an inexixten eldorado, i do not want to talk about the Jet Set in dakar, the 25 million houoses being build, the lincoln navigators cars being driven in dakar.
So let face it and talk communicate and find some others outlets for all those brothers dreaming for a better live.
Que la terre leur soit legere.
I think that situation will never have an end , because desperate young men and also women say that it is just the same thing : death in poverty in home country or somewhere in oceans .
Deep poverty drives thousands to make the treacherous sea journey to Spanish lands where they believe jobs await. Fishing boats with a single outboard motor carry 40 or 50 people -- and sometimes more -- on trips that can take weeks.
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