Three fathers were found guilty on Tuesday by the court in Mbour, 80 km from Dakar, of endangering the lives of their children by putting them on canoes bound for Europe.
The judge had demanded two years’ imprisonment against the three parents, including that of Doudou Faye, the 14-year-old teenager who dreamed of becoming a professional footballer in Europe. He died last October, trying to enter Europe illegally. Co-defendants, whose children survived the sea ordeal, had less severe sentences.
However, the three offenders are all sentenced to two-year suspended sentence, with one month in prison. The court acquitted them of the offense of complicity in the smuggling of migrants but upheld the offense of endangering someone’s life.
The tragic case of young Doudou has aroused emotion and indignation in Senegal and abroad. His father had paid 250,000 CFA francs to a smuggler without talking about the project to the teenager’s mother. For the prosecutor, those who let their children go under these conditions were grossly negligent in organizing their trip.
In recent months, departures have resumed, from the beaches of Mbour, Dakar or even Saint-Louis. Dozens of candidates for the trip are crammed into overcrowded canoes attempting to reach Spain, despite difficult Atlantic Ocean weather conditions this time of year.
Dramatic tales follow one another in the newspapers: boats taking on water, overheating engines and fishermen bringing in bodies.
Faced with this upsurge, President Macky Sall, last month, instructed the ministers concerned and the defense and security forces to ensure “the imperative and systematic need to strengthen the surveillance and control systems of the national maritime space, and of the coast in particular.”
ODL/cgd/fss/abj/APA