Thiloththama Jayasinghe, Jadetimes Staff
T. Jayasinghe is a Jadetimes news reporter covering Foreign News
The decomposition of at least 30 bodies on the boat off Senegal's coast outlines the tragedy that is still being attempted through illegal migration from West Africa to Europe. The locally named pirogue wooden canoe was found adrift about 70 km from Dakar. Authorities are describing the delicate process of recovering the bodies due to their advanced state of decomposition. It is believed that migrants had been cast adrift for many days, another grim chapter in perilous journeys in search of a better life.
The perilous trips through the Canary Islands of Spain, over 1,500 km across the Atlantic Ocean, have increased in Senegal. Local fishermen, who often come across lifeless bodies adrift, say this is due to depleted fish stock by foreign trawlers and a lack of economic opportunities. This despair is forcing many to make risky voyages or hire their boats out to human smugglers.
And yet, all these tragedies, a climbing death toll, unemployment, poverty, conflict-continue to push young men to take this risk. The Senegalese government has just launched a 10-year plan to deal with illegal migration, but the root causes of the problem are deeply embedded in their society. NGOs like Horizons sans Frontières underline that the root causes have to be dealt with, such as raising awareness among vulnerable areas, since these attempts at migration can no longer be regarded as isolated incidents but rather part of a greater structural problem.
The route through the Canary Islands has become popular, for this requires only one, but dangerous, sea crossing, while migrants would have to cross Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea otherwise. FRONTEX recorded a 161% increase in migrants using the Atlantic route in 2023, while the UN recorded about 40,000 arrivals in the Canary Islands last year. The number of known deaths and disappearances among migrants is nearly 1,000, though in reality, it is much higher. Such unabated loss of life on this route brings out the dire need for more comprehensive solutions to address the drivers of migration in West Africa.
