Dozens Missing Following Boat Holding Two Hundred Migrants Sinks off The Gambia.
No fewer than seven souls have perished and many others remain unaccounted for after a boat transporting about two hundred people trying to get to the European continent capsized off the coast of the Gambian coast, reports confirm.
The vessel capsized in the early hours of Thursday in the vicinity of Jinack in the North Bank Region and it was afterwards located "beached on a shoal", the country's defence ministry stated in a release.
Nearly one hundred people have been saved to date and a search is continuing for the remaining passengers who were aboard the shipwrecked vessel that was heading towards the Spanish Canary Islands.
The perilous journey over the Atlantic has become an increasingly common route for African asylum seekers attempting to get to the EU.
Almost 47,000 people made it to the Spanish archipelago in last year and figures suggest more than 9,000 people have lost their lives trying.
Search and Rescue Efforts
In the aftermath of the disaster, Gambia's naval forces began a rescue mission, using a number of military boats and a fishing boat that came to assist, the military reported.
Officials state some of the deceased are not Gambian nationals and that their identities are still being verified.
The deceased of the seven individuals who died have been retrieved, and ten of the survivors are described as being in critical condition and undergoing emergency treatment.
A Common Migration Route
The Gambia is one of the routes used by asylum seekers attempting to enter European countries, often on perilous trips across ocean and terrain.
In recent years, the European Union has reached agreements with multiple North African nations aimed at limiting irregular migration.
