Boat capsizes off Mauritania killing at least 49 passengers

At least 49 people died of the coastal security guards in the North-West African country, and 100 more people are lost after a boat on the coast of Mauritania.

Seventeen people were rescued and a search continues for other passengers on the shelter canoe of Spain to the Canary Islands.

According to the survivors, the boat left Gambia six days before Tuesday’s accident and carried about 160 people, especially Gambia and Senegal citizens.

The dangerous journey on the Atlantic Ocean has become an increasingly widespread way for African immigrants trying to reach Europe.

Last year, approximately 47,000 people reached the Canary Islands, and Spanish non -governmental Caminando Fronteras estimated that more than 9,000 immigrants died while trying.

Coast Guard Sources, Spanish news agency Efe, about 60 km (37 miles) north of the capital Nouakchott, said the efforts to search on the beach.

A senior Coast Guard official told AFP News Agency, the immigrants identified the lights of a coastal town late on Tuesday night and “moved to one side and caused alborda.”

Spanish media quote Caminando Fronteras spokesman Helen Malano said he believed that about 140 people were missing – and called on Mauritania’s coastal protection to continue to search for them.

He described this as one of the most important “this summer tragedy”.

At the beginning of this week, Mauritania security forces He was accused of systematically abuse of immigrants from other African countries.

The Human Rights Monitoring Organization Report claimed that violations have worsened with an agreement with the European Union and Spain, which aims to prevent dangerous maritime transitions to the Canary Islands.