Video shared on local media showed a rescue boat of local fishermen approaching a thick column of dark smoke in the open ocean, as people swam frantically towards them. The Senegalese and Spanish navies and fishermen rescued some 60 people, but "at least 140 people have drowned", IOM said in a statement. Migrant arrivals in the Canary Islands from West Africa have more than quadrupled so far this year to around 11,000 compared with the same period in 2019, IOM said. The perilous sea passage to the Canary Islands was once a more popular route. Fourteen boats carrying 663 migrants left Senegal for the islands in September, over a quarter of which experienced an incident or shipwreck, the IOM said.

Source: bd News24 October 29, 2020 15:56 UTC