More than 140 irregular asylum seekers were feared dead on Friday after a ship bound for Spain’s Canary Islands sank off the coast of Mauritania, according to Spanish media reports.
Mauritanian authorities told Spanish news agency EFE that at least 70 bodies had been recovered, along with 17 survivors.
Spanish NGO Walking Borders reported that about 160 people were believed to be travelling on the ship.
“This is one of the biggest tragedies of the summer,” Helena Maleno, head of Walking Borders, told Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser.
The shipwreck occurred about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott on Thursday, according to EFE, though the vessel had departed from The Gambia.
The Canary Islands migration route – which involves crossing the Atlantic from northwest Africa to the Spanish archipelago – is considered one of the deadliest in the world.
Official figures show nearly 47,000 people reached the Canary Islands in 2024, but Walking Borders estimates over 9,750 died along the way.
