Scores Lost After Craft Transporting Two Hundred Asylum Seekers Sinks off the Gambian coast.
At least seven individuals have perished and many others remain unaccounted for following a craft carrying around two hundred migrants trying to get to European shores capsized near the shoreline of Gambia, reports confirm.
The craft flipped late Wednesday night close to Jinack village in the northern bank region and it was later found "stranded on a sandbar", the nation's defense ministry announced officially.
Nearly one hundred people have been rescued so far and a rescue operation continues for other passengers who were on board the capsized craft that was bound for Spain's Canary Islands.
The hazardous trip over the Atlantic has become an increasingly common route for migrants from Africa attempting to get to the EU.
Close to 47,000 individuals made it to the Spanish archipelago in last year and estimates over nine thousand individuals perished in the attempt.
Ongoing Mission
In the aftermath of the disaster, Gambia's naval forces began a rescue mission, involving a number of military boats and a fishing boat that joined the effort, the defence ministry reported.
Authorities say a number of those who died are not Gambian nationals and that their nationalities are still under confirmation.
The deceased of the seven victims who died were found, and a dozen of the saved are said to be in critical condition and receiving urgent medical care.
A Frequent Pathway
Gambia is a common pathway used by migrants seeking to get to the EU, often on hazardous voyages across ocean and terrain.
In recent years, the European bloc has established pacts with a number of North African countries with the goal of curtailing illegal migration.
