Editorial
Sep 22, 2025
On September 22, the Senegalese navy assisted 259 migrants in distress about 100 kilometers from Dakar. These departures for the Spanish Canary Islands, increasingly frequent from Gambia and Guinea, reflect a shift in migration routes due to reinforced controls on the Senegalese, Mauritanian, and Moroccan coasts.
The Senegalese navy announced on Monday, September 22, 2025, that it had rescued 259 migrants approximately 100 kilometers off the coast of Dakar. In a message posted on the social network X, it specified that the survivors were disembarked at the Admiral Faye Gassama naval base and handed over to the appropriate authorities.
According to the same source, the migrants had departed from a “neighboring country,” without further details. This incident comes just days after a Senegalese fisherman rescued 112 people adrift off the coast of Dakar. Their boat, which had departed from Gambia, had suffered engine failure, and the captain had abandoned the passengers, leaving them to fend for themselves.
Migration routes that are shifting
For several months, the number of migrants leaving from Gambia and Guinea for the Spanish Canary Islands has been increasing. This change in route is linked to the tightening of controls on the Moroccan, Mauritanian, and Senegalese coasts.
"This recent movement is due to the strengthening of other migratory routes: that of Morocco for some time, and more recently those of Mauritania and Senegal," explains Delphine Perrin, a specialist in African migration policies, to InfoMigrants .
But while these new routes allow people to bypass controls, they considerably lengthen the crossing and increase the risks in the Atlantic. Each departure thus becomes a race against hunger, thirst, and the dangers of the sea.