At least 300 people travelling in three boats from Senegal to the Canary Islands are missing, a Spanish aid group said Monday.
Two boats, carrying a total of about 100 people, and the third, with about 200 on board, have been missing for 15 days, according to Walking Borders (Caminando Fronteras).
The third boat left Senegal on June 27 with about 200 people aboard.
"The most important thing is to find those people. There are many people missing in the sea, this isn’t normal, we need more planes to look for them", Helena Maleno Garzon, coordinator for Walking Borders told The Associated Press.
She continued: "Imagine if there (were) 300 American people missing at sea. What (would) happen? Many planes will look for them."
She said there has been no contact with the boats since their departures and families are growing increasingly worried.
Daw Demba's 19 and 24-year-old sons left on one of the boats from Mbour in June to try and pull the family out of poverty, she said.
The 48-year-old discovered her sons' secret plot to leave days before and tried to convince them not to, but they assured her it would be safe because the captain had taken the trip safely multiple times, she said.
“I am desperate to hear the voices of my sons. I am convinced they are still alive ... Every moment every second, I am still believing,” she said through tears on the phone with AP from her home in Mbour.
Before they left she armed the boys, Massou Seck and Serigne Galaye Seck, with traditional spiritual items, including a bottle of water that had been blessed and Quranic paper with their names written on it for protection.
There has been no contact with the boats since their departure, she said. The Spanish and Senegalese authorities didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Atlantic migration route is one of the deadliest in the world, with nearly 800 people dying or going missing in the first half of this year, according to Walking Borders.
In recent years the Canary Islands has become one of the main destinations for people trying to reach Spain, with a peak of more than 23,000 migrants arriving in 2020, according to Spain’s interior ministry.
In the first six months of this year, more than 7,000 migrants and refugees reached the Canaries.
Some boats go missing and are never found or discovered until years later.
Senegalese people are dealing with a crippling economy, a lack of jobs, extremist violence, political unrest and the impact of climate change which are all pushing migrants to risk their lives on overcrowded boats.
The missing boats follow one of the deadliest migrant drownings last month, in which more than 500 people are presumed dead off the coast of Greece.
