🔗 Share this article Dozens Missing Following Boat Transporting Two Hundred Asylum Seekers Goes Down near the coast of the Gambian coast. Authorities located the stricken boat beached on a sandbar, authorities say. A minimum of seven individuals have died and a significant number are missing after a craft transporting about two hundred migrants attempting to reach European shores overturned in waters near The Gambia, authorities say. The craft flipped in the early hours of Thursday near Jinack village in the North Bank Region and it was later found "stranded on a sandbar", the country's defence ministry said in a statement. Ninety-six people have been rescued so far and a hunt is ongoing for the remaining passengers who were aboard the shipwrecked vessel that was bound for the Canary Islands of Spain. The dangerous voyage over the Atlantic has become an increasingly common route for African migrants seeking entry into the EU. Almost 47,000 people made it to the Canary Islands in last year and data indicates in excess of 9,000 migrants have died during the journey. Search and Rescue Efforts After Wednesday's accident, the navy launched a search operation, deploying a number of military boats and a fishing boat that came to assist, the defence ministry said. Officials state some of the deceased are foreign nationals and that their identities are still being verified. The bodies of the seven individuals who drowned have been retrieved, and ten of the survivors are said to be in grave health and receiving urgent medical care. An Established Corridor Gambia is one of the routes taken by asylum seekers attempting to enter the EU, frequently via perilous trips over water and land. In recent years, the European Union has established pacts with a number of Maghreb states with the goal of reducing illegal migration.