When a fisherman showed up for work on a recent morning at a popular beach in Dakar, the capital of the West African nation of Senegal, he found a horrifying scene: Dead bodies splayed across the sand, and a painted wooden boat bobbing unattended.
He plunged into the water to help search for survivors. The pirogue, a wooden fishing boat, had been loaded with migrants hoping to reach Spain, but instead it struck a ring of underwater rocks in the early morning hours of July 24.
At least 16 bodies were recovered — the latest in a string of tragedies to befall people risking the treacherous ocean route to Europe.
This boat, however, was being chased by patrol vessels from Spain and Senegal in near total darkness when it hit the rocks, according to a witness who was on the beach and the leader of a local aid group who has spoken with survivors. The deputy mayor for the area also said in an interview that the boat was being pursued.
“This could have been avoided,” said the fisherman, Pape Djibril Samb, who was among the lifeguards, exercisers and other fishermen who are regulars on the beach but helped retrieve bodies.
Senegalese officials said they are investigating, and declined to comment. A spokesman for Spain’s interior ministry, who declined to be named in keeping with the ministry’s policy, denied in an email that a Spanish patrol vessel pursued the pirogue, saying their patrol boat alerted Senegalese authorities on land that a boat was sinking after it ran aground.
The tragedy at a beach beloved by runners and fishmongers, at the foot of the towering Mosque of the Divinity, shocked a nation accustomed to hearing about deadly events involving boats leaving Senegal packed with people heading for Spain, often via the Spanish Canary Islands. In just June and July, at least 547 people died in boats that left from Senegal, according to a tally from the Spanish aid group Walking Borders.
Patrols on the water have been rising in recent months, said local aid groups. They worry that new resources devoted to stopping migration will lead to more dangerous situations.
The accident raises difficult questions about how best to respond to the increasingly deadly crisis of irregular migration, and shows how some aggressive efforts to curb arrivals can backfire.
European countries are stepping up efforts to intercept migrants long before they get near their own shorelines, and Senegal, which restricts migration by boat, is part of the effort. On Aug. 4, the E.U.’s ambassador to Senegal joined Senegal’s interior minister to inaugurate a new headquarters for Senegal’s air and border police — part of nine million euro, or $9.9 million, effort with Spain and France to help stop illegal migration.
Other resources from Europe have already arrived, including training and high-tech equipment for Senegalese border police.
Senegal has yet to decide whether to accept a 2022 proposal from the European Commission to deploy Frontex, the E.U. border control agency….
2023-08-13 04:00:49
Article from www.nytimes.com
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