By Biran Gaye
The Senegalese navy found a boat wandering off the coast of Dakar, Senegal on Sunday, September 22, with at least thirty ‘lifeless bodies’ on board, the army said in a statement, according to reports.
“For the moment, thirty bodies have been counted and investigations are underway to establish the origin of the pirogue and specify the human toll of the tragedy,” the army clarifies in a press release published on social networks.
The coasts of Senegal have seen a wave of tragedies of irregular migration to Europe in recent weeks, with more than forty Senegalese would-be-migrants drowning off the coast of Mbour, Senegal three weeks ago, plunging the country to mourning.
A patrol boat dispatched to the area towed the boat to Dakar harbor where it arrived around 6 a.m. local time on Monday and doctors, firefighters and hygiene service agents intervened, reports say.
“The recovery, identification and transfer operations are made very delicate by the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies,” the army said.
This boat, carrying 150 people, is said to be the one that had left Mbour almost two months ago heading for Spain, which had been untraceable for some time, according to sources.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has vowed to crackdown on smugglers who aid migrants to embark on the illegal ‘backway’ route to Europe following the capsizing of a pirogue carrying migrants weeks ago.
Faye visited Mbour where the tragedy that caused the death of several dozen people took place.
“It is with great sadness that I stand here today in the face of this human tragedy that deeply affects us. The nation is in mourning, and the situation is particularly unbearable. On behalf of the Senegalese nation, I would like to express my condolences to the bereaved families and to show them the full solidarity of the State and the government in this ordeal that affects us all,” the President declared.
He calls for a sense of collective responsibility to address illegal migration. However, he blamed illegal migration networks for the tragedy, saying: “What happened here is the result of the activities of human traffickers, who exploit the despair of our youth by selling them the illusion of a better future. I want to make it clear that the hunt for these merchants of dreams and death will intensify from now on.”
The tragedies are stark reminders of the dangers of irregular sea crossings and once again raise the question of illegal immigration, which, every year, causes the loss of many lives in Senegalese waters and beyond.
