The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that 144 refugees and migrants have been reported dead or missing following a series of maritime inciden
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that 144 refugees and migrants have been reported dead or missing following a series of maritime incidents off the coast of Mauritania, calling attention to what remains one of the deadliest migration routes in the world.
Three rescue operations were carried out from the Mauritanian port city of Nouadhibou between July 14 and 18, bringing 387 people of various nationalities safely ashore.
The deadliest incident involved a boat that left Bufuloto in The Gambia bound for Spain’s Canary Islands, roughly 905 nautical miles away.
The vessel was rescued after nearly 25 days stranded at sea, but only 38 people survived out of the roughly 143 who were reported dead or missing from that single boat.
A UNHCR spokesperson said two children who had lost all their family members during the journey were among the survivors and were recovering in hospital, though details on the exact causes of death — whether from drowning, hunger, or thirst — were not immediately available.
A separate death was recorded on another vessel that disembarked in Mauritania on July 14.
So far in 2026, 17 disembarkations have been recorded in Nouadhibou and Nouakchott, Mauritania, with 2,147 individuals rescued in total.
Overall arrivals of migrants and refugees to Europe by sea on the major routes are down by more than a third this year, with just over 40,000 arrivals compared with 65,407 in the first half of 2025.
Despite the drop in total crossings, UNHCR stressed that the number of deaths and disappearances remains at alarming levels, and it renewed calls for greater access to education and labour opportunities in countries of origin as alternatives to the dangerous sea crossing toward Europe’s Atlantic islands.
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