Migrant boat carrying 200 people missing off Canary Islands

A migrant boat that departed from Senegal with 200 people has gone missing off the Canary Islands.

The Spanish sea search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo is leading the quest to find the boat that went went missing in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Western Africa more than a week ago with many children aboard, BBC News reported.

According to aid group Walking Border, the boat departed from the coastal town Kafountine on June 27 and intended to sail to Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, located about 1,050 miles away.

Two smaller boats, one carrying about 65 people and the other carrying roughly 60, which left around the same time are also said to be missing, Walking Borders told Reuters. If confirmed, more than 300 migrants would be missing across the three boats.

“The families are very worried. There about 300 people from the same area of Senegal. They have left because of the instability in Senegal,” Helena Maleno of Walking Borders told Reuters.

Salvamento Maritimo told Spanish news agency Efe that a plane had joined the search.

The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said nearly 1,700 migrants have died trying to sail to the Canary Islands since 2021.

The missing boat comes several weeks after a migrant vessel sank in the Mediterranean while approaching Greece. At least 79 people drowned but hundreds are still missing, according to the U.N.

In another Mediterranean incident, a boat taking migrants from Tunisia to Italy sank in the sea on Sunday. Rescuers saved 11 people but one was confirmed dead and 10 remained missing.