Vessel left the Gambia last week and had been carrying at least 150 people

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Dozens of people have died after a boat carrying refugees and migrants capsized off the coast of Mauritania, in one of the deadliest disasters this year involving people attempting the perilous journey to Europe.

The International Organization for Migration said 58 people had been killed. Scores more who tried to swim to safety in the Atlantic Ocean were receiving treatment.

The boat left the Gambia a week ago and had been carrying at least 150 people, including women and children. It was heading towards the Canary Islands when it approached the Mauritanian coast to get fuel and food, said Laura Lungarotti, the Mauritania chief of mission for the UN migration agency.

“Many drowned. The ones who survived swam up to the Mauritanian coast close to the city of Nouadhibou,” she said. “The Mauritanian authorities are very efficiently coordinating the response with the agencies.”

At least 83 people swam to shore, the agency said. Mauritanian authorities said security forces found 85 survivors. The interior minister, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, said 10 people were taken to a hospital for urgent treatment while the search continued for an unknown number of missing people.

Up to 180 people were on the boat when it capsized, most of them aged between 20 and 30, he said.

Mauritania would be launching an investigation into those responsible, including possible trafficking networks, he said.

The minister said thousands had died off the Mauritania coast in attempts to reach the Canary Islands between 2005-10 but since then the number of deaths had declined. However in recent months the authorities had detained boats mostly carrying hundreds of migrants from Senegal, which neighbours the Gambia.

Survivors said the boat that capsized had left the Gambia on 27 November.

There was no immediate statement from authorities in the Gambia, where tens of thousands of people have attempted to reach Europe in recent years. More than 35,000 Gambians arrived in Europe seeking refuge between 2014 and 2018, according to the UN migration agency.

A 22-year oppressive rule by Yahya Jammeh weakened the country’s economy and exacerbated the exodus. Jammeh fled into exile in January 2017 after a surprise election loss, European countries have been attempting to return people seeking asylum.

The coastal country was shaken this year by the collapse of Thomas Cook. At the time, the Gambia’s tourism minister said the government convened an emergency meeting on the firm’s demise, while some Gambians said the shutdown of the British travel company could have a devastating impact on tourism, which contributes more than 30% to the GDP.