AT LEAST 300 people heading in three boats from Senegal to Spain are missing, a Spanish aid group said yesterday raising concern about their fate on one of the deadliest sea routes for migrants.

Two boats departed from Mbour city on June 23 carrying about 100 people and a third left the southern town of Kafountine four days later with about 200 people, said Helena Maleno Garzon, co-ordinator for Walking Borders (Caminando Fronteras), but there has been no contact with the boats since their departure.

“There are many people missing in the sea, this isn’t normal, we need more planes to look for them,” she told the Associated Press agency.

An unofficial spokeswoman for Spain’s marine rescue service said it was alerted about one missing boat on July 5 and was looking for the vessel but had no knowledge of the other two.

The Atlantic migration route is one of the deadliest in the world, with nearly 800 people dying or going missing in the first half of this year, according to Walking Borders.

In recent years the Canary Islands have become one of the main destinations for people trying to reach Spain. In the first six months of this year, more than 7,000 migrants and refugees reached the Canaries.

Boats that go missing often are not documented. Some are never found. Earlier this year, an AP investigation found that in 2021 at least seven migrant boats from north-west Africa, probably trying to reach the Canaries, drifted  west to the Caribbean and Brazil.

The boats mainly travel from Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania, with fewer coming from Senegal, the Spanish aid group said. However, since June at least 19 boats from Senegal have arrived in the Canary Islands, it added.

The missing boats follow one of the deadliest migrant drownings last month, in which more than 500 people are presumed dead off the coast of Greece. Criticism has mounted over Europe’s years-long failure to prevent such tragedies.

Ms Maleno of the Spanish aid group said she has been in contact with the Moroccan, Spanish and Mauritanian marines but that more needs to be done to look for the missing boats.

“Imagine if there were 300 American people missing at sea. What would happen? Many planes would look for them,” she said.