(Barcelona) Five migrants were found dead on Wednesday aboard a boat drifting off the coast of the Canary Islands, while at least 68 others were rescued by a cruise liner, Spanish emergency services announced Thursday.
The canoe was spotted by a boat on Wednesday afternoon while it was about 800 km south of Tenerife, one of the islands in this Spanish archipelago located near the northwest coast of the African continent, where the number of migrant arrivals has been increasing again in recent weeks.
Rescuers then asked a cruise ship, the Insignia, which was nearby, to pick up the survivors, Spanish rescue services said.
This boat, owned by the company Oceania Cruises, based in Miami, and which can accommodate up to 670 passengers, has been on a 180-day trip around the world since January.
Its crew managed to rescue 68 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, including three minors and three women, and retrieve three bodies, but “bad weather” prevented them from recovering the other two bodies.
It was therefore decided to leave the migrant boat there, placing a tracking device on board to allow rescuers to find it later.
The Insignia is expected to arrive in Tenerife on Friday morning.
An Oceania Cruises spokesperson said the 68 migrants were provided with “medical assistance as well as food, drinks, clothing and a safe place to rest” on board.
This new tragedy illustrates the increase in migrant arrivals in the Canaries recorded in recent weeks.
By 2023, nearly 40,000 migrants had arrived in the Canaries, more than double the figure recorded the previous year and even more than in 2006, the record year until then for migrant arrivals.
Spain is one of the three main entry points into Europe for illegal immigration, along with Greece and Italy.
Since the start of the year, however, arrivals to Italy by sea have fallen significantly, according to figures from the Italian Interior Ministry, with migrant flows moving towards Spain and Greece.
As far as Spain is concerned, the main route is the Canary Islands, which is less monitored than the Mediterranean.
However, it is an extremely dangerous route due to the currents and the very precarious state of the makeshift boats used by migrants.
Most of the boats arriving in the Canaries come from Senegal, Morocco or Western Sahara.
According to figures from the Spanish migrant aid NGO Caminando Fronteras, more than 5,000 migrants died during the first five months of the year while trying to reach the Spanish coast, most of them by the Canary Islands route. .
