Almost 170 migrants have returned to Senegal after spending virtually every week in limbo on a Spanish rescue boat
ByZANE IRWIN Related Press
DAKAR, Senegal — Almost 170 migrants returned to Senegal on Wednesday after spending virtually every week in limbo on a Spanish rescue boat.
Deputy Mayor Lamine Ndiaye confirmed 168 migrants had been safely transferred from a Spanish vessel to Senegalese authorities. They had been anticipated to reach in Dakar by sea Wednesday night.
Since Thursday, the migrants had been caught aboard a Spanish Civil Guard vessel close to the northwest African nation of Mauritania after authorities there refused to allow them to disembark, in line with Spanish media.
The Civil Guard is considered one of two nationwide police forces in Spain. For years, it has labored with native authorities in Mauritania and Senegal to attempt to stop migrants from trying to achieve Spain’s Canary Islands, an archipelago within the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa.
The crew on the Tagus River Civil Guard boat spent days at sea with the survivors, and at a number of factors fired gunshots into the air to quell riot makes an attempt, in line with a put up retweeted by the official Spanish Civil Guard account on X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter.
In current months there was a surge of migrants departing from Senegal, who should navigate north previous Mauritania to achieve the Canaries. Mauritanian authorities declined to touch upon why the migrants had been barred from disembarking on its shores.
Worldwide maritime regulation mandates that any individual present in misery at sea should be rescued and delivered to the closest place of security, and that asylum seekers shouldn’t be forcibly returned to a rustic the place they could face persecution.
In an announcement Tuesday, the Spanish Fee for Refugees (CEAR) requested Spanish authorities to not convey the migrants again to Senegal, since “the present political and social state of affairs in Senegal could be very delicate and will put these individuals in danger.”
Tensions have lately run excessive in Senegal, the place a preferred opposition chief’s arrest in July spurred violent unrest.
Tens of hundreds of individuals throughout West Africa board rickety wood boats certain for Europe yearly. Many search to flee political unrest, youth unemployment and worsening situations for fishing and farming.
The route from West Africa to Spain is likely one of the world’s most harmful. Almost 1,000 migrants died whereas attempting to achieve Spain by sea within the first six months of 2023, says Spanish rights group Strolling Borders.