No fewer than seven individuals have died and a significant number are lost following a vessel carrying around 200 migrants attempting to reach the European continent overturned near the shoreline of the Gambian coast, authorities say.
The craft flipped in the early hours of Thursday close to Jinack in the North Bank area and it was later found "stranded on a sandbar", the country's defence ministry said in a statement.
Nearly one hundred people have been saved to date and a rescue operation continues for those still missing who were on board the sunken boat that was heading towards the Canary Islands of Spain.
The dangerous voyage over the Atlantic Ocean has emerged as a rising pathway for African migrants trying to reach Europe.
Nearly forty-seven thousand migrants made it to the Canary Islands in last year and figures suggest in excess of 9,000 people have died in the attempt.
Ongoing Mission
After Wednesday's accident, the navy launched a search-and-rescue operation, involving a number of military boats and a commercial fishing craft that offered help, the defense officials reported.
Authorities say several of the victims are not Gambian nationals and that their identities are still being verified.
The bodies of the seven individuals who perished at sea have been retrieved, and ten of the survivors are reported to be in grave health and receiving urgent medical care.
An Established Corridor
The Gambia is one of the routes utilized by asylum seekers seeking to get to European countries, typically through perilous trips over water and land.
Recently, the European Union has established pacts with a number of Maghreb states with the goal of curtailing undocumented migration.
