DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The discovery of more bodies in Senegalese waters on Monday raised the death toll to 39 after a migrant boat capsized over the weekend, authorities said.
Only one passenger had been rescued and an operation to find others was ongoing, the Interior Ministry said. It did not say how many people were on the boat.
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The boat left Saint-Louis in northern Senegal and was headed to the Spanish coast when it overturned Sunday near the town of Kébémer, north of the capital, Dakar, officials said.
It was one of two accidents involving migrants in boats over the weekend that left at least 56 people dead, the International Organization for Migration said. The other was in Greece, where authorities recovered 13 bodies from a boat found sailing south of Crete. Another person died later.
The Senegalese boat was following a well-traveled migration route used by thousands of young Senegalese seeking a better life abroad. They travel in open wooden canoes for around 800 miles (1,290 kilometers) across the Atlantic Ocean in a bid to reach Europe. Young people face high unemployment and poverty as Senegal struggles with an economic crisis.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye offered condolences and vowed to clamp down on the networks behind the dangerous crossings.
“Smugglers and traffickers charged them for a dangerous journey on boats that were not fit for the sea," IOM Director General Amy Pope said in the statement. "These networks profit from desperation, and every day they operate, more lives are put at risk.”
