*** ----> 58 migrants dead after boat capsizes off Mauritania | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

58 migrants dead after boat capsizes off Mauritania

Scores of migrants who swam through rough Atlantic Ocean waters to safety from a capsized boat while 58 others drowned were receiving care Thursday in Mauritania after one of the deadliest disasters this year among people making the perilous journey to Europe.

The boat that left Gambia a week ago had been carrying at least 150 people, including women and children.

It was headed toward the Canary Islands when it tried to approach the Mauritanian coast to get fuel and food, chief of mission in the West African nation with the UN migration agency Laura Lungarotti, told The Associated Press.

“Many drowned. The ones who survived swam up to the Mauritanian coast close to the city of Nouadhibou,” she said. “The Mauritanian authorities are very efficiently coordinating the response with the agencies currently present in the northern city."

At least 83 people swam to shore, the agency said. An unknown number of injured were taken to the hospital in Nouadhibou.

It was not immediately clear whether anyone remained missing.

Survivors said the boat had left Gambia on November 27.

Despite the country’s small size, more than 35,000 Gambians arrived in Europe between 2014 and 2018, according to the UN migration agency.