UN in Cabo Verde mobilizes rapid assistance after boat rescue with some 60 missing
The United Nations in Cabo Verde has confirmed its support for the government following a boat rescue on August 16 off Cabo Verde’s coast with reportedly 60 migrants missing and seven dead.
The country representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has responded to an official request for support from the national authorities. The precarious vessel that departed from Senegal is under investigation. The archipelago is part of the route taken by migrants heading through the Spanish Canary Islands to enter Europe.
Support mechanisms
The UN Resident Coordinator ad interim in Cabo Verde, David Matern, told UN News that national authorities are receiving support from the UN through a regional initiative.
"First of all, I would like to express our solidarity with the victims and the survivors of the terrible boat disaster off Cabo Verde, as well as their families. We, the United Nations in Cabo Verde, and especially IOM, are closely monitoring this situation.
We’ve activated the necessary support mechanisms in close coordination with the national authorities. IOM Cabo Verde has received an official request from the President of the High Authority for Immigration of Cabo Verde, for financial support, to address the most urgent needs of the survivors.”
The acting Resident Coordinator went on to confirm that IOM has in fact already responded, through a regional project – evidence-based assistance to migrants in vulnerable situations in Western Central Africa – that is funded by the Government of Spain.
While there is still a lack of information on what happened at sea, survivors report that their boat departed Fass Boye in Senegal on 10 July. When it was rescued on 15 August in Cabo Verdean waters, there were 38 survivors and 7 bodies on board.
The national police in Cabo Verde are currently in the process of identification of the bodies.
Proper monitoring, search, and rescue
The waters of the Cabo Verdean archipelago raise global concerns as they lie on the route used by migrants to get from West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands, considered an entry point to Europe.
Matern continued: “The West Africa route is very dangerous, particularly when there’s a lack of monitoring and search and rescue capacity.
This results in possible deaths that go often unreported and unrecorded, a phenomenon we call ‘the invisible shipwrecks.' What all maritime migration routes have in common is that thousands of people depart on risky journeys or fall into the hands of smugglers and traffickers who exploit their despair.”
He concluded, pointing out that what we need is a holistic approach to these dangerous journeys including more robust, swift, and coordinated search and rescue missions to save lives, more access to and expanded safe and legal migration channels, and more international cooperation to address the reason why people feel forced to leave home and risk their lives in the first place.
This news story draws from a piece by UN News Portuguese, as well as audio recordings.
To learn more about the UN’s work in Cabo Verde, visit: caboverde.un.org/pt.
