Spanish rescuers located a boat leaving Senegal with 86 sub-Saharan migrants on board. More than 300 people who traveled in boats bound for the Canary Islands are still missing. Human rights organizations warn about the increase in rafts in the area. Interview with Helena Maleno, founder and coordinator of the NGO Caminando Fronteras.
First modification:
RFI: 86 people have been rescued in the Atlantic, on the maritime route that connects Senegal with the Canary Islands, but three rafts have not yet been located missing. What is known about the situation?
Helena Maleno: In principle we continue with three missing boats. They left on June 23 and 27 and there is still no news. This Monday there was a good location of another boat that also came from Senegal. We had hopes that it was one of these three, but finally, when they reached land we made the pertinent inquiries and found that it was not. More than 300 people are still missing. What we are asking the authorities once again is that they have rescue means in the area to carry out more effective searches.
RFI: How has the European authorities handled the reactivation of this route to the Canary Islands?
Helena Maleno: The answer is totally insufficient. We have been denouncing it not only with these boats, but with others that end up in shipwreck. We have been denouncing it because it is a policy that is similar to the one that is causing deaths in Greece and Italy. It is a policy of omission of the duty of relief.
You have to imagine if there were 300 Frenchmen who were missing right now at sea, the amount of resources they would be deploying for this search. However, in this search, the three countries that must collaborate are Mauritania, Morocco and Spain, they are not doing so.
In addition to not being doing it, the means that they are putting into the sea are insufficient. In fact, there is only one Spanish air service that does not leave all the time. He leaves sometimes for a few days, a few hours. This is totally insufficient to protect the democratic obligation of defending the right to life at sea of a European democracy.
RFI: What has led to an increase in the migratory flow from Senegal across the Atlantic?
Helena Maleno: Those boats are leaving Senegal mainly because of the political problems that exist in that country right now. At the end of May the strongest repression against the protests and demonstrators began. There have been imprisonments and deaths. ohi was when people began to flee Senegal.
In fact, now in the Atlantic is not a good time to cross. It is an idea that we have preconceived by the Mediterranean. In the Mediterranean, summer is good weather at sea, but in the Atlantic the good weather begins in September and December is the best meteorological month. So now what we are seeing are departures of young people who are fleeing the instability that the country is presenting right now.
