Dozens Unaccounted For After Craft Carrying Two Hundred Migrants Sinks off The Gambia.

At least seven individuals have died and numerous others are missing after a boat transporting about 200 migrants attempting to reach Europe capsized near the shoreline of the Gambian coast, reports confirm.

The boat overturned late Wednesday night near the village of Jinack in the North Bank area and it was later found "stranded on a sandbar", the Gambian military authorities announced officially.

Nearly one hundred people have been saved to date and a search is continuing for other passengers who were on board the shipwrecked vessel that was heading towards the Spanish Canary Islands.

The perilous journey over the the Atlantic has become an increasingly common route for African asylum seekers trying to reach European nations.

Close to forty-seven thousand migrants made it to the Canaries in last year and estimates more than 9,000 migrants have lost their lives during the journey.

Search and Rescue Efforts

In the aftermath of the disaster, Gambia's naval forces initiated a search operation, involving multiple navy ships and a commercial fishing craft that joined the effort, the defense officials said.

Officials state several of the victims are not from The Gambia and that their identities are still being verified.

The deceased of the seven individuals who drowned were found, and ten of the survivors are reported to be in grave health and getting immediate medical attention.

A Frequent Pathway

This West African nation is a frequent corridor utilized by asylum seekers seeking to get to the EU, often on hazardous voyages over water and land.

Over the past few years, the European bloc has forged deals with a number of North African countries aimed at reducing illegal migration.