A policeman stands by the bodies of dead immigrants on a beach of the Sicilian city of Catania on August 10, 2013. Photo: AFP

 

At least 58 migrants heading to Europe died as their makeshift boat sank off the coast of Mauritania, but 83 survivors managed to swim to shore, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.  

The migrants "were mostly clandestine immigrants trying to reach Spain, coming from Banjul in Gambia," Mauritania's interior ministry said in a statement released Wednesday night.

The migrant vessel sunk some 25 kilometers north of the town of Nouadhibou, near the border with Western ­Sahara, a Mauritanian security official told AFP. 

"The craft hit a rock in the middle of the sea, it started taking on water and the engine fell apart," the official said. 

"They weren't far from the shore, but a large swell stopped them from reaching the coast by boat."

The official added that there was nothing aboard and that the migrants were hungry and cold so they jumped into the sea and started swimming. 

The IOM said survivors had said the boat left The Gambia on November 27. 

Attempted migrant crossings to Europe along the coast of West Africa - known as the "western route" - have grown in number in recent years. 

Last year saw a "substantial increase" in arrivals to Europe along this route, which skirts Morocco, with over 65,000 people making it across the Mediterranean there, the European Union has said. 

In March, dozens of people are suspected to have drowned when a migrant boat plying this route foundered off the coast of Morocco.