Senegal Intercepts Ships Carrying Hundreds of Migrants to Europe

The Senegalese navy announced Sunday it had intercepted four boats, filled with migrants, bound for Europe over the previous three days. The grand total of migrants captured since July 1 reached 1,995 with these latest interceptions.

“Two more boats carrying 262 would-be migrants, including 26 women and 13 minors, were boarded late Saturday. The navy also stopped a boat with 272 passengers on Friday and 71 a day earlier,” Deutsche Welle (DW) reported, citing representatives of the Senegalese navy.

Another wooden boat, or pirogue, loaded with migrants was forced back to the Senegalese coast by strong winds on Saturday. Social media videos showed dozens of migrants leaping into the water before the ship ran aground, desperate to avoid arrest by the navy.

The increased tempo of migrant boat interceptions was part of a ten-year plan announced by Senegal in late July, which included stronger border security, a crackdown on human smugglers, and more funding for repatriating intercepted migrants.

The plan, formally known as the National Strategy to Combat Irregular Migration (SNLMI), is intended to “drastically” reduce the number of migrants passing through Senegal. It was not announced with a budget, but the Senegalese government said it would receive funding from “external partners” as well as Senegal. In April, Senegal’s Directorate of Air and Border Police inaugurated a new $9.5 million high-tech headquarters financed by the European Union.

Senegal’s interior minister, Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome, explained in July that stricter measures were needed because irregular migration is such a “dangerous phenomenon.” Shortly before the SNLMI was announced, more than 30 migrants were killed when two overloaded boats capsized off the Senegalese coast.

Later in July, a boat loaded with more than a hundred migrants launched from Senegal toward Spain’s Canary Islands, a major waypoint on the illegal migration route from Africa to Europe. The boat never reached the Canary Islands. A Spanish fishing ship rescued 38 of the passengers, who were returned to Senegal about a week later, while the others were lost at sea. Many of the survivors were severely injured from their ordeal and required hospitalization.

In August, a small boat filled with migrants slammed into the rocks near Dakar, Senegal, while trying to evade Spanish patrol vessels in total darkness. Sixteen bodies were recovered from the wreckage. Spanish officials denied accusations they were responsible for the crash because they pursued the smuggling boat at high speed.

Spanish human rights activists estimate that at least 800 people died or disappeared on the Canary Islands migration route in just the first half of 2023.

One reason migration from Senegal increased was that the Senegalese government began selling fishing contracts to foreign companies. This quickly wiped out the domestic fishing industry, depriving coastal youth of employment opportunities and making even a risky trip across the Atlantic seem like a reasonable gamble. Local fishermen complain about Chinese trawlers overfishing the region and leaving nothing for small local operators.

In August, the BBC interviewed a 27-year-old Senegalese man named Mamour Ba, whose brother Cheikhouna was killed while trying to reach the Canary Islands. Two of his other brothers and a cousin survived floating at sea for over a month while awaiting rescue.

Mamour said he planned to make the same migration attempt himself despite the deadly hazards because “there’s nothing for us here in Senegal.”

“Others have done this journey and have drowned but it doesn’t put me off. It’s a risk I’m willing to take. Even if there was a boat ready to go today, I’d take it,” he said.