A minimum of seven individuals have died and numerous others are missing following a vessel carrying around two hundred migrants attempting to reach the European continent overturned near the shoreline of the Gambian coast, reports confirm.
The boat overturned late Wednesday night in the vicinity of the village of Jinack in the North Bank area and it was later found "stranded on a sandbar", the Gambian military authorities announced officially.
Ninety-six people have been saved to date and a search is continuing for the remaining passengers who were traveling on the shipwrecked vessel that was en route to the Spanish Canary Islands.
The hazardous trip over the the Atlantic has become an increasingly common route for African asylum seekers seeking entry into European nations.
Nearly forty-seven thousand migrants reached the Spanish archipelago in last year and figures suggest in excess of 9,000 people have lost their lives trying.
Ongoing Mission
After Wednesday's accident, Gambia's naval forces began a search-and-rescue operation, using several naval vessels and a fishing boat that offered help, the military confirmed.
Authorities say some of the deceased are not Gambian nationals and that their nationalities are still under confirmation.
The bodies of the seven victims who died have been retrieved, and 10 of those rescued are described as being in grave health and receiving urgent medical care.
A Frequent Pathway
The Gambia is one of the routes taken by migrants seeking to get to Europe, typically through dangerous journeys by sea and land.
Over the past few years, the EU has established pacts with a number of Maghreb states designed to curtailing undocumented migration.
