Senegal intercepts boat carrying nearly 80 migrants from West Africa

Senegal has intercepted a boat carrying nearly 80 migrants from West Africa, the army said Tuesday, hours before the Spanish Prime Minister was set to visit the region in the face of a surge in migrant arrivals.

The 76 people, including six women and seven children, were stopped by a Senegalese Navy patrol boat 80 kilometres (50 miles) off the coast of the capital Dakar on Monday evening, the Armed Forces Public Relations Directorate (DIRPA) posted on X.

The passengers aboard the intercepted vessel included 55 Senegalese, 11 Guineans, seven Gambians, two Malians and one national from Guinea-Bissau, DIRPA said.

The interception took place just hours before the start of a three-day visit by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to Mauritania, The Gambia and Senegal – three key countries in the migration crisis.

Sanchez is due to arrive in Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott on Tuesday afternoon.

Nearly every day, Spain’s coastguard rescues a boat carrying dozens of African migrants towards the Canary islands off the northwest coast of Africa. The islands’ government has pleaded for more help.

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Between January 1 and August 15 this year, 22,304 migrants reached the Islands, compared with 9,864 in the same period in 2023 – an increase of 126 percent, according to interior ministry figures.

Across all of Spain, there were 31,155 arrivals up to mid-August, a 66 percent increase on the 18,745 a year earlier.

Senegal’s army announced in mid-August that it had launched “joint patrols” with security forces at several locations in a bid to prevent migrants leaving the country.

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The army said the operation had so far led to the arrest of “453 potential migrants and members of smuggling networks, including 239 Senegalese, 145 Guineans, 32 Gambians, 17 Malians, seven Bissau-Guineans, six Ivorians, three Nigerians, two Comorians, one Mauritanian and one Congolese”.