Spain’s coastguard announced on Monday that it had dispatched a plane to seek for 200 migrants missing in the Atlantic after setting sail from Senegal.
Spokesperson for the agency, Salvamento Maritimo tweeted that the Canary Islands-based rescue plane was searching for a boat “that left Senegal with around 200 people on board.”
“With the plane, we have been searching a very wide area south of Gran Canaria and Tenerife but we haven’t found it,” she stated.
The director of Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish non-governmental organisation, dedicated to providing assistance to distressed boats, Helena Maleno, has verified the departure of a vessel from the southern town of “Kafountine” on the 27th of June, carrying an estimated 200 individuals.
“The families told us about the disappearance of the boat saying they had had no news for several days,” she said in an audio message, indicating the NGO had alerted the Spanish and Moroccan authorities.
The Atlantic trip is very dangerous due to strong currents, and migrants frequently set sail in overcrowded, unseaworthy boats.
Migrant crossings to the Atlantic archipelago began to surge in late 2019, after strengthened patrols along Europe’s southern coast reduced Mediterranean crossings substantially.
