In 2019, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi stated that “saving lives at sea is not a choice, nor a matter of political debate, but an age-old obligation.” No matter how irregular the route taken to reach their destination country, migrants have rights. The latter oblige both the countries of origin and destination to duties from which they cannot evade. Especially when it comes to migrants who have chosen the sea to reach another part of the world ass it has been the case in Senegal in recent months. Specifically, there are three cases of human rights violations that have attracted the attention of Dialogue Migration during the months of July and August.

Failure to assist migrants who left Fass Boye since July 10, 2023

One month and 5 days. This is the time spent on sea by the canoe that left the village of Fass Boye (Darou Khoudoss commune, Tivaouane department) and had no less than 101 migrants on board. Before being rescued on Tuesday, August 15th  by the Cape Verdean Navy off the island of Sal with only 38 survivors and 6 lifeless bodies. This information immediately shook Senegal. The very next day, Dialogue Migration went to the fishing village located just over 100 kilometers from Dakar to gather information on the alleged victims and the conditions in which they perished.

An interview with the village chief, Madior Diop, led us to the home of Baye Arona Boye, a father who had a child and seven (7) nephews in the boat that ran aground in Cape Verde. This old septuagenarian and other parents alerted the authorities, ten days after the departure of the canoe. He deplores the inaction of the Senegalese government, which he believes, has led to this tragedy. “For more than three weeks, my colleagues and fellow fishermen and I have been looking for this canoe. We alerted the authorities, including the Minister of the Interior, after 10 days without news of our children, but nothing was done to find them,” he said.

Old Boye adds: “We have set up a delegation here to go to Saint-Louis to meet the president of the fishermen association there, Makka Dieye. A man who worked like crazy with his teams to help us. Unfortunately, there was a logistical problem. We were stranded despite our desire to rescue our children. We only had dugout canoes. And one canoe cannot rescue another canoe. That’s when we contacted some of our relatives who are in Spain.”

Disappointed, Baye Arona Boye concludes with a broken heart: “Our relatives living in Spain reported the disappearance to the Spanish Navy, which deployed the necessary means to search for the canoe in its shores for three days without result. Then, we informed the Moroccan authorities. They also actively searched for the canoe but did not find it. It was then that we realized that our children had not left the Senegalese shores and that with a little effort, the Senegalese Navy could have found them before this tragedy. But the State did nothing.”

Navy accused of  colliding with a pirogue that  left 18 people dead in Ouakam

On the morning of July 24th, 2023, the nation woke up to the news  of a capsized canoe carrying migrants at the beach of Ouakam,a fishing village nestled in the Senegalese capital.

 This tragedy caused 18 deaths and dozens of missing in a boat that contained at least 50 people. The vice-president of the Ouakam fishing wharf, Daouda Ndiaye, made serious revelations in the aftermath of this sad event. According to him, it was three patrol boats of the French Navy that collided with the said canoe and caused it to capsize. He was the first on the scene and says he spoke with survivors about the circumstances of the tragedy.

“They (the survivors he spoke to) said there were about 50 people on board,” Ndiaye said. They told me that three French Navy ships had chased them. In the heat of the moment, one of the boats crashed into their canoe. The captain maneuvered to dock at the beach, but the canoe got stuck between the rocks. With the high tide, the canoe reached the beach, but it did not capsize,” Ndiaye told the newspaper L’Observateur on July 25, 2023.

He added in the same newspaper: “Besides, the bottles filled with petrol and other belongings were still on board. I was one of those who helped the gendarmes to get the luggage down. In reality, the canoe did not capsize.”

Two Senegalese MPs have sent a letter written to the National Assembly calling for the opening of a parliamentary inquiry into the tragedy. “Do you remember the eighteen (18) lifeless bodies recovered off the coast of Ouakam on July 24, 2023? May their souls rest in peace! We have heard many versions, including this one: “The canoe that ran aground on Monday in Ouakam with 18 lifeless bodies would not have capsized. It was reportedly hit by one of the three ships of the French Navy, which had chased it.” This is why my colleague Alioune Sall – a member of parliament from the diaspora who is doing an excellent job – and I have sent a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly for the establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry,” said Guy Marius Sagna, in a note sent to Dialogue Migration.

Young potential migration shot dead at Rufisque  beach  

On Wednesday, August 9th, 2023 at around 10:30 p.m., gendarmes from the Rufisque company notified the sleuths of the city’s Central Police Station, of the suspicious presence at Keuri-Souf beach, of two young men who were carrying backpacks slung over their shoulders. A raid on the premises to arrest those who were presented as candidates for migration quickly turned into a tragedy. A young man named Mbaye Ngom was shot in the left collarbone. He bled to death before being evacuated to the Youssou Mbargane Diop Hospital in Rufisque. Two other of his comrades who were more fortunate than him escaped with injuries while the other supposed candidates had deserted the beach.

For the purposes of the investigation, the public prosecutor at the Rufisque District Court transferred the case to the central police station of Rufisque and entrusted the case to the gendarmes of the Colobane Research Section.

A holster believed to be from the murder weapon that killed young Mbaye Ngom (born in 1991) has been handed over by police to investigators. According to the newspaper L’Observateur of August 11, 2023, the holster is a 5, 56 caliber, used with “improved M16” weapons.

Senegalese candidates for irregular migration continue to brave the sea and its dangers

Between the months of June, July and August 2023, more than a thousand Senegalese took to the sea to reach the Spanish coast. No less than 17 boats left the Senegalese coast during this period to try to reach Europe, according to the Coordinator of the NGO Village du migrant, Khadim Bamba Fall, who indicates that at least six (6) canoes are missing. “There were several canoes that left Senegal during the months of June and July. We have launched the search, but so far, we have not heard from them. The six canoes had left Senegal, more precisely Kayar and Fass Boye. But so far, we haven’t received any news about them,” says Fall.

Fall added that 10 dugout canoes that had left Senegal to reach Spain were intercepted in Dahla,Moroccan. “With the Consul General of Senegal in Morocco, we counted more than a dozen boats that were intercepted in Dahla. These boats had 1025 passengers on board.” 

The director of the NGO Caminando Frontera, which fights for the rights of migrants, said on her Facebook page they have counted dozens of dugout canoes that had left Senegal with hundreds of would-be migrants arriving on the Spanish coast. 

It should be noted that it is a real demographic bloodletting that is taking place in this country composed mainly of young people (70% of the population) that nothing seems to hold back anymore. Not even the dozens of deaths announced and the hundreds of their compatriots missing.