A minimum of seven people have perished and a significant number remain unaccounted for after a craft transporting about 200 people seeking to enter Europe overturned off the coast of the Gambian coast, reports confirm.
The craft flipped in the early hours of Thursday in the vicinity of the village of Jinack in the North Bank Region and it was afterwards located "beached on a shoal", the Gambian military authorities said in a statement.
96 individuals have been saved to date and a search is continuing for the remaining passengers who were on board the capsized craft that was heading towards Spain's Canary Islands.
The dangerous voyage over the the Atlantic has grown into a more frequent path for migrants from Africa trying to reach European nations.
Nearly forty-seven thousand migrants arrived at the Canary Islands in last year and data indicates in excess of 9,000 migrants perished in the attempt.
Rescue Operation
In the aftermath of the disaster, the navy initiated a search-and-rescue operation, deploying multiple navy ships and a commercial fishing craft that offered help, the defence ministry reported.
Authorities say a number of those who died are foreign nationals and that their nationalities are still under confirmation.
The bodies of the seven victims who died have been retrieved, and ten of the survivors are reported to be in critical condition and undergoing emergency treatment.
A Frequent Pathway
Gambia is one of the routes utilized by migrants trying to reach European countries, often on perilous trips across ocean and terrain.
In recent years, the European bloc has reached agreements with a number of North African nations aimed at limiting illegal migration.
