DAKAR/ATHENS: Senegal’s navy has recovered at least 30 bodies from a boat discovered adrift around 70 kilometres off the coast of the capital Dakar, the army said on Monday.

Investigations are under way to establish where the vessel came from and to confirm the death toll, the army said in a statement posted on social media.

Senegal’s coastline sees frequent tragedies involving attempts to reach Europe by boat. After being alerted to the incident on late Sunday, a navy patrol towed the adrift, long, wooden fishing boat known as a pirogue to the port of Dakar where it arrived around 6am (GMT), the statement said.

A team of doctors, fire service personnel and sanitation workers awaited the convoy’s arrival, it added. “Recovery, identification and transfer operations are being made extremely delicate by the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies,” the army statement said.

Four die in migrant shipwreck off Greek island

“So far, 30 bodies have been counted.” Senegal’s coasts are one of the main departure points for scores of migrants hoping to reach Europe every year, many heading for the Spanish Canary Islands.

At least four migrants died when their boat sank on Monday off the Greek island of Samos, the Greek coastguard said.

30 migrants were believed to be initially on board the vessel that foundered off the rocky shores of Agios Isidoros in the northwestern part of the Aegean island, according to coastguard officials.

The four migrants found dead were all women, a coastguard official said. Five migrants have been rescued so far, among them a pregnant woman and a minor who were taken to hospital for medical checks, another official said.

The coastguard said another 25 migrants had been located on shore. It was immediately clear whether they had been on board of the vessel that sank. Four vessels and a naval helicopter were involved in the search-and-rescue operation launched by the coastguard after a resident reported seeing migrants on the shore.

Strong winds in the area hindered the operation, the official added. Greek authorities were also searching the island in case some of those believed missing had already reached the shore.

Britain arrivals

The number of migrants arriving in Britain by crossing the Channel in small boats has topped 25,000 since the start of the year, provisional figures showed on Monday.

The figures come as the new Labour government — like the last Conservative administration — struggles to reduce the cross-Channel arrivals. Some 717 migrants crossed the Channel from northern France on Sunday, taking the cumulative number of arrivals so far in 2024 to 25,052, according to the interior ministry. A similar number, 707, also made the crossing on Saturday.

The total represents a four per cent rise on the equivalent figure at this point last year, but a 21pc drop on 2022. Stopping the small boat arrivals on England’s southern coast was a key issue in Britain’s general election in July. Within days of taking power, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped the Conservatives’ controversial scheme to deport migrants to Rwanda.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2024