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Twenty-two migrants on board a boat en route to the French island of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean, perished on Saturday in a shipwreck off the coast of Madagascar, Malagasy maritime authorities announced on Monday. Twenty-three passengers were saved.
Shipwreck in the Indian Ocean. Twenty-two migrants on board a boat en route to Mayotte perished on Saturday following their boat sank off the coast of Madagascar, the Malagasy maritime authorities announced on Monday March 13.
“Forty-seven people were said to have taken the boat clandestinely, intending to reach Mayotte, but it was shipwrecked. Twenty-three of the passengers were able to be saved. Twenty-two dead bodies were found”, a specified the Port, Maritime and River Authority (APMF) in a press release.
The search continues following the shipwreck that took place off the Ambanja district, at the northern tip of Madagascar. The coast closest to the big island is just over 350 km from the French department.
The navy, the gendarmerie, the customs but also simple fishermen participated in the rescue operations, according to the APMF.
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Risky clandestine crossings aboard kwassa kwassa
Capsizes of kwassa kwassa, small motorized fishing boats used by smugglers, occur regularly on the sea route linking the Comoros, or Madagascar, to Mayotte.
Many African and Comorian migrants attempt each year clandestinely to reach the archipelago, half of whose population is foreign. The Comorian island of Anjouan is located only 70 km from Mayotte.
Since 2019, the French State has considerably increased its means of combating this illegal immigration, in particular with the continuous presence at sea of interceptor boats and aerial surveillance. On a visit to Mayotte in December, the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, expressed his desire to strengthen the fight.
In 2021, 6,355 migrants and 324 smugglers were arrested, and 459 boats destroyed, according to French authorities.
There are no reliable statistics on the deaths of these risky clandestine crossings. According to an information report from the French Senate published in the early 2000s, around a thousand people die there every year.
With AFP
