Not less than 22 migrants lost their lives when their boat sank off the coast of Madagascar over the weekend.
This was disclosed by the island country’s maritime authority APMF in a statement on Monday.
The statement read, “Forty-seven people had clandestinely taken a boat headed to (the French territory of) Mayotte, but that sank.
“Twenty-three of the passengers were able to be saved. Twenty-two bodies were found,”
It added that the accident happened on Saturday and that search-and-rescue operations were continuing for the two people who remained missing.
See Also: Six Dead, Five Unaccounted For As Boat Capsizes In Niger
Several migrants each year attempt to enter the French territory of Mayotte, which lies north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
In 2021, over 6,500 people were detained while attempting to secretly enter the territory, French authorities reveal.
There are no reliable data on how the number of people that have died attempting such crossings. A French senate report published in the early 2000s estimated that, at that time, around 1,000 people were dying each year.
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