More than 140 people died or went missing off the coast of Mauritania last week after three separate boat incidents on the migration route from West Africa to the Canary Islands, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Tuesday.
In the deadliest single episode, 143 people were found dead aboard a vessel that had departed Bufaloto, Gambia, with roughly 160 passengers and drifted for 25 days before being discovered on Saturday with 38 survivors. A separate death was reported among passengers from another boat that reached shore on 14 July. Mauritanian authorities rescued 387 people across three operations between 14 and 18 July, bringing them to Nouadhibou.
The West Africa–Canary Islands corridor remains one of the world's deadliest migration routes. Arrivals to the Canaries have fallen 61 percent compared with the same period last year, with 4,400 people reaching the islands through mid-July.