Engine problems were to blame for leaving adrift a boat packed with Europe-bound African migrants that floated for four months across the Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea off the island of Barbados, investigators said Thursday. Everyone aboard the boat died. The would-be migrants allegedly paid US$1,800 each to reach Spain, said Barbados police spokesman Barry Hunte. Spanish authorities were seeking a Spanish man they believe organized the trip, the Spanish newspaper El Pais has reported. Barbadian authorities believe 52 Africans were aboard the rusty 20-foot (6-meter) boat and that it left Senegal on Christmas eve in a bid to reach Europe. Instead, the boat drifted more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) west across the Atlantic. It was found on April 29 by a fisherman off the coast of Barbados. The boat contained the bodies of 11 young men who were virtually mummified by the sun and salt spray. The other passengers apparently were lost at sea. The boat’s engine was not working – although there was still diesel in it – and there was evidence that someone had tried to repair it, said Colvin Bishop, assistant police superintendent in Barbados.

A note was written by one of the migrants and found tucked between the bodies. “I would like to send to my family in Bassada (Senegal) a sum of money. Please excuse me and goodbye. This is the end of my life in this big Moroccan sea,” he wrote. The note appeared to be written by a Senegalese man named Diao Souncar Dieme, said Marshall. The names Ibrahima Dieme and Omar Badje were mentioned in the note.

With transit routes to Europe through Morocco being gradually sealed, migrants are taking to the seas farther down the coast of northwest Africa, some traveling in overcrowded fishing boats more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) in stages to reach Europe. The boats often get lost or break down, drifting helplessly in the Atlantic or capsizing in rough seas. Authorities on the Canary Islands say they have intercepted nearly 7,000 migrants since January, compared to 4,751 in 2005. More than 1,000 are believed to have perished attempting the journey from Africa to the Canary Islands since December, according to the Red Cross in Mauritania, a favoured departure point for the boats.
Will our dear African brothers learn from this and desist from illegal migration?

Portions of story provided by FOX News

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