Refugee agencies call for action on people smuggling after 140 die in shipwreck

Incident off the coast of Senegal is the deadliest shipwreck recorded so far this year

UN refugee and migration agencies have called for renewed efforts to tackle people-smuggling and trafficking gangs, and to protect those they exploit, after at least 140 people died off the coast of Senegal in the deadliest shipwreck recorded this year.

The deaths, which followed four shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean last week and another in the Channel, come amid a huge rise in the number of migrants and refugees using the dangerous Atlantic route from Africa to the Canary Islands.