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Madrid, Spain
A total of 350 migrants were rescued from five separate vessels, on Thursday (June 22), near Spain’s Canary Islands, said officials, as per news agency AFP. This comes a day after more than 30 migrants were feared dead after their inflatable dinghy sank in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands on the same route, said two migrant charities.
What happened on Thursday?
Officials in the Canary Islands on Thursday said that night emergency services had assisted 114 migrants in two separate boats, as per Reuters. They also said that a total of 53 people were taken to Lanzarote, another Spanish island, while 61 migrants, including a baby and his mother, were taken to a hospital in Gran Canaria.
Images and videos from the rescue operations show some migrants covered in red blankets arriving at the Arguineguin port in Gran Canaria as the rescue workers help people including children disembark.
According to the emergency services, on Thursday morning, a third boat was spotted by the coast guard with some 54 people on board who were also taken to Lanzarote. Later in the day, another boat with 59 migrants, including three children, on board arrived in Arguineguin, reported Reuters citing TV footage.
More than 30 feared dead after dinghy carrying 60 sinks
This comes a day after Walking Borders and Alarm Phone, as per BBC, said that the dinghy was carrying around 60 people. According to Spanish authorities, emergency services found the bodies of a minor and a man and rescued 24 other people, however, it was not immediately clear how many people were on board.
According to BBC, Helena Maleno Garzon from NGO Walking Borders, said that 39 people, including four women and a baby, had drowned. Meanwhile, Alarm Phone said 35 people were missing. As per reports, the boat sank about 160 kilometres off the coast of Gran Canaria on Wednesday.
Spanish rescue service ship, the Guardamar Calliope, said that the boat was only an hour’s sail away but they did not aid the boat since Moroccan officials had reported dispatching a patrol boat that arrived on Wednesday morning.
It was 10 hours after the dinghy was first spotted by a Spanish rescue plane, reported the news agency. The incident has since sparked criticism from migration-focused organisations. The Spanish Maritime Rescue received a distress call on Tuesday evening and promptly dispatched a plane from the Canary Islands to locate the boat.
However, Moroccan authorities took charge of the rescue operation, and a merchant ship in the vicinity also responded to the alert, eventually assisting in rescuing the 24 survivors. The Canary Islands have witnessed a sharp increase in migrants this month.
The Spanish archipelago’s migration lawyer Loueila Mint El Mamy said, “Numbers were falling so far this year, but there was an increase this month that surprised everybody. Only in June, close to 2,000 people have arrived,” as per Reuters.
According to data from the United Nations International Organisation for Migration, at least 559 people, including children, died in 2022 on the route typically used by migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to reach the Canary Islands.
(With inputs from agencies)
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