https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article253590154.html#storylink=mainstage
GENEVA — A boat that had 54 migrants on board has been discovered off the West African coast after drifting at sea for 10 days with no food or water aboard.
When the Mauritanian coast guard located the ship — which had apparently suffered an engine failure — on Monday, only seven people were still alive, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration reported in Geneva on Wednesday.
The refugees were trying to reach the Spanish Canary Islands.
The island of Fuerteventura is about 60 miles from Morocco on the African mainland.
IOM and UNHCR gave no details on where the boat had left on Aug. 3 or how far it had drifted.
The survivors were brought to Nouadhibou, about 520 miles south of Fuerteventura.
According to IOM and UNHCR, more than 350 people have already died on the refugee route to the Canary Islands this year — with 40 deaths reported just 10 days ago. Some 8,000 had reached the islands.
“Our top priority is to provide safe and viable alternatives to the dangerous journeys undertaken by refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean,”…
