A court in Senegal has sentenced a father to one month in prison this Tuesday who was being tried for boarding his teenage son on a boat bound for the Canary Islands in which he died during the voyage.
The events date back to mid-October, when the accused, Mamadou Lamine Faye, gave 250,000 CFA francs (about 381 euros) to a trafficker in exchange for his 14-year-old son, who dreamed of being a footballer, being able to reach the Canary Islands and, later, Italy.
However, the young Doudou lost his life along the way, according to some sources, after he became ill during the journey. His body was thrown into the sea by the passengers who were traveling with him to the Spanish archipelago.
According to the Senegalese media 'Wafd', the father has been sentenced to two years in prison with remission of the sentence, but must spend a month in prison. Finally, he has been accused of "endangering the lives of other people" but has been acquitted of the crime of "complicity in the trafficking of migrants."
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 500 migrants and refugees have died this year trying to reach the Canary Islands from the western part of Africa, more than double the 210 victims registered in all of 2019.
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