GunjurOnline can report that 99 Gambians stranded in the Western Sahara desert en-route to mainland Spain on a wooden boat across the Atlantic have been repatriated by The Gambia government.
The would-be migrants left their detention camp last night on a bus that took them to Morocco’s airport. The group then boarded a flight to Banjul earlier today. They will be arrive in The Gambia later today. Eight (8) young lives were lost at sea as the boat navigates it's way to Spain before hundreds were rescued in the desert when their boat anchored.
The captain of the boat on which the migrants were sailing has also been arrested by the Senegalese authorities upon arriving in the country, this medium can also report.
It could be recalled that eight young men have perished in the high seas between the Gambian and Moroccan waters as they ventured on the perilous journey across the Atlantic to Spain about two weeks ago. Augustine Gomez, a teacher at Gunjur Upper Basic School from Gunjur Taneneh and his cousin Nicola Gomez from Talinding are among those who have died as the captain of the boat was said to have lost his bearing and could not direct the boat to the intended destination. The boat was carrying about 125 people, 80 of whom are from Gambia and 25 from Gunjur.
The migrants spent 11 nights at sea with barely any food and drinks, exhausted while the boat virtually sank, but for divine intervention, only 8 people lost their lives and the rest found themselves in a desert in Morocco and arrested by the border patrol team. According to our findings, the boat left Gunjur beach stopping at Salul, Casamance where more people boarded the boat before the group headed to sea en-route to what they believed to be mainland Spain.
