By Biran Gaye
A migrant boat that departed from Mandinaring in West Coast Region of The Gambia two weeks ago, has been intercepted by the Mauritania navy, says an activist.
Ebrima Drammeh said the migrants were deported to Roso in Senegal, but were later repatriated to the Gambia.
In another development, three different boats carrying migrants including women and children departed from The Gambia on Saturday, August 17, said the activist.
He explained that one of the boats departed from Bakau, but could not confirm where the other two boats departed from.
Activist Drammeh said a migrant boat that departed from Sfax in Tunisia Friday night with 44 people including Gambians, is still missing at sea.
In Tunisia, Sfax, El Amra and other cities, African migrants and refugees continue to encounter several humanitarian challenges in open camps and other makeshift residences, as they struggle to get medical services, food and water, and keeping their hopes of reaching Europe alive.
“We can’t even predict the next minute that this is what will happen because they can come anytime with tear gas and gun, shooting us up and down,” an African migrant in Sfax, Tunisia says while sharing her plight in a video circulated on X formerly Twitter on how migrants are being hunted down by the Tunisian National Guard.
She lamented the unsanitary environment they are forced to live in and says they lack enough food rations.
The dejected woman pleads with the EU and the Tunisian authorities to help them change their situation.
A significant decrease in boat migration to Italy, attributed to heightened anti-smuggling operations by North African countries, contrasts with a dramatic rise in migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands.
A recent report by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag noted a significant decline in boat migration to Italy in recent months. Citing figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number of arrivals dropped by 63 percent as of August 12, compared to the same period last year.
This decrease is attributed to anti-smuggling operations by Libyan and Tunisian authorities, as well as agreements between the EU and North African Mediterranean countries.
Meanwhile, the number of migrants reaching the Canary Islands has more than doubled in the first seven and a half months of 2024. Figures from the Spanish Interior Ministry reveal that 22,304 migrants arrived in the Canaries by August 15, up from 9,864 during the same period last year — a 126 percent increase.
