Authorities have intercepted more than 780 migrants attempting to use The Gambia as a launchpad to Europe, the interior ministry said Friday, days after a capsized migrant boat off the coast killed more than 30 people.

Tens of thousands of people, most of them young, have tried to reach Europe from west Africa in recent years, mainly via the Spanish Canary Islands, on overcrowded and often dilapidated boats.

"We conducted three operations, which led to the interception of 782 would-be migrants across different locations in the country," Siman Lowe, spokesman for the Gambia Immigration Department, told AFP.

He said the operation began on January 3 after at least 31 people were killed when an overloaded migrant boat capsized overnight on New Year's Eve.

Maritime patrols

Migrant boats have recently been forced to leave from further south in west Africa, notably from The Gambia and Guinea, after Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco increased maritime patrols.

"The Gambia has observed with deep concern, the rapid increase in the number of people attempting to travel to Europe by sea using The Gambia as a launch path," the interior ministry said in a statement.

The situation, it added, had prompted "the activation of special operation teams to decisively respond".

Among those intercepted were 233 people from Senegal, 197 from The Gambia, 176 from Guinea and 148 from Mali.

A number of migrant boat accidents linked to The Gambia occurred towards the end of 2025.

Distress call

The boat that capsized overnight December 31 to January 1 was last heard from in a distress call near the country's North Bank region.

A boat with more than 200 people on board, which on December 5 left the northern village of Jinack, also in the North Bank region, remains unaccounted for, according to the Ebrima Migrant Situation Foundation.

And a vessel with more than 190 migrants which departed from Jinack on November 17 has been confirmed to have sunk after weeks of failed tracing, the same foundation said.