The Gambia Immigration Department (GID) has arrested 37 people including women and children after they plan to travel illegally to Spain by boat.

GID spokesman Mamanding S Dibba said among the arrested people included six minors all of whom are Gambians, and three Sierra Leonean women.

 “On Wednesday the 9th of June 2021, the GID receives intelligence from our counterparts that a migrant group consisting of various nationalities are planning to embark on a perilous journey using the high seas to the Canary Islands in Spain,” he said.

“Our officers in collaboration with our sister forces, the SIS and the Gambian navy were able to work on this information leading to the arrest of nine people in Tanji and another 28 people in Gunjur, totalling to a sum of 37 people,” he added.

Two years ago a boat carrying Gambian migrants from Barra and Essau in the North Bank division capsized off the coast of Mauritania killing 63 people including women and children. 

The tragedy was the single biggest loss of Gambian lives since the illegal migration route to Europe started in 2012.