30 migrants arrested in Senegal

Police in Senegal said some 30 migrants who had left by boat from Gambia in hopes of arriving in Europe were arrested on Saturday August 18.

The police said, the boat ran aground in front of a police station after suffering damage. Some passengers managed to escape, including captain of the boat.

The Atlantic Ocean route, which often runs through Spain, was one of the main routes of secrets migration in the mid-2000s. Sub-Saharan Africans began to prefer Mediterranean routes, passing through Spain and Italy.

But due to the blockade of Libya, whose coast guards prevent passage of migrants, smugglers are changing their methods by going further west.

Northern Senegal has seen an increase in departures to Europe, often organized with the complicity of fishermen, according to the Senegalese border police.

AFP