Nearly two dozen migrants killed as boat capsizes off Madagascar coast

At least 22 migrants have died when their boat sank off the coast of Madagascar over the weekend, the island nation’s maritime authorities said.

“Forty-seven people had clandestinely taken a boat headed to (the French territory of) Mayotte, but that sank,” the Madagascar maritime authority APMF said in a statement.

“Twenty-three of the passengers were able to be saved. Twenty-two bodies were found,” it said, adding that the accident occurred on Saturday and that search-and-rescue operations were continuing for the two people who remained missing.

In 2021, more than 6,500 people were detained trying to enter the territory clandestinely, according to French authorities.

There are no viable statistics on how many people have lost their lives in attempting such crossings. 

A French senate report published in the early 2000s estimated that, at that time, around 1,000 people were dying each year.

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