Boat carrying dozens of migrants bound for Spain returns to Gambia after taking on water

A boat carrying dozens of migrants hoping to reach Spain returned to shore after taking on water off the coast of Gambia.

The vessel had left Gambia a few days earlier and no casualties have been reported.

Passenger Ebrima Sarr says he paid more than $600 for a place on the boat:

"I met with one of the agents who told me that he has a boat which is going to Spain, and I paid him 50,000 Gambian Dalasi."

The journey from northernmost Gambia to Spain’s southernmost Canary Islands is about 1,600 kilometres - a long and dangerous voyage in the rudimentary wooden boat.

"They only gave us one engine," says Sulayman Jawara, who was on the boat. "How can one engine take us to Spain? And one captain. We didn't get anywhere.”

This incident comes after at least 31 people drowned when an overloaded boat capsized on New Year’s Eve off the coast of Gambia. The boat was carrying more than 200 undocumented migrants bound for Spain.