Mauritania's Executive has reported the rescue of more than 200 migrants, including 28 minors, who were traveling on a vessel located off its coast and that, according to the initial information, had set sail from Gambia. This action comes a few days after another operation in the same area in which more than 190 people were rescued.
In a note released on social media, the Ministry of Fishing and Maritime and Port Infrastructure explained that the Coast Guard located the boat around 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday. The department specified that the vessel would have left Barra with the intention of following the migratory route whose main destination is the Canary Islands.
The authorities detailed that there were 204 occupants on board. Of these, 143 were of Senegalese nationality, among whom 20 minors are counted. In addition, there were 48 Gambian citizens, with eight children among them, as well as seven people from Guinea and six from Ivory Coast.
"This operation is part of the ongoing efforts of the Mauritanian Coast Guard to monitor national waters, combat irregular migration and carry out rescue missions, always prioritizing the protection of human life and attention to humanitarian needs, in accordance with established procedures," it concluded.
According to data published on its website by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), since 2014 around 6,400 people have lost their lives or gone missing on this route to the Canary archipelago, placing it only behind the Sahara Desert, where more than 7,000 dead and missing have been documented.
The IOM has recently pointed out that a decline has been observed in the number of migrant arrivals from West Africa to Europe, with the Canary Islands as the main entry point. Nevertheless, it warned that the strengthening of controls in Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal has shifted the departure points even farther south, thereby increasing the risk and lethality of these journeys.