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Three migrants found dead off Spain’s Canary Islands and 15 rescued

Three people were found dead in a canoe full of migrants that was rescued Saturday off the Canary Islands, Spanish maritime rescue officials said.

Published: 31 December 2023 13:02 CET

This handout picture from the Spanish coastguard shows three migrants on the rudder of Alithini II oil tanker off Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, after surviving an 11-day journey from Lagos to Spain's Canary Islands.

This handout picture from the Spanish coastguard shows three migrants on the rudder of Alithini II oil tanker off Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, after surviving an 11-day journey from Lagos to Spain's Canary Islands. On Saturday, three migrants were found dead off the Islands. (Photo by SALVAMENTO MARITIMO / AFP)

Lifeguards managed to take 15 survivors off the boat found late afternoon some 314 kilometres (195 miles) south of the island of El Hierro, a spokesperson for the Spanish emergency services told AFP.

The survivors, some suffering from hunger and hypothermia, were transported by helicopter to El Hierro.

READ ALSO: What happens to undocumented migrants after they arrive in Spain?

The Canary Islands, Spanish islands off the north-west coast of Africa, are seeing the largest number of migrant arrivals since 2006.

READ ALSO: Spain’s Canary Islands receive record number of migrants in 2023

Most of the undocumented migrants risking the perilous crossing are from sub-Saharan Africa.

READ ALSO: Spanish PM Sánchez says EU migrant deal ‘key’ for border management

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32 migrants die every day trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands

“It is the highest-ever daily number of deaths since records began,” said Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish charity which alerts the maritime authorities to migrant boats in distress and began collating figures in 2007.

“The figure is alarmingly high in comparison with last year,” said the NGO.

The total of 5,054 deaths in just five months, among them 154 women and 50 minors, is already approaching the overall number of victims for the whole of last year. That stood at 6,618, equating to an average 18 deaths per day of people trying to reach Spain in 2023.

This year’s figure was calculated following an “exhaustive” analysis of the migration routes taken by migrants seeking to reach Spain from as far away as Senegal in the south to Algeria on the Mediterranean coastline.

The vast majority were on the Atlantic route, where 4,800 migrants died while trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands, it said. This equates to 32 migrants drowning on the voyage every day, one every 45 minutes.

READ ALSO: How migrants who don’t make it find final resting spot on Spain’s Canary Islands

“We cannot normalise these figures.. it is not complicated, it is just about not letting people die at the border and using all means to save the lives of those at risk,” said Caminando Fronteras founder Helena Maleno in the statement.

The figures emerged after a year in which a record 56,852 undocumented migrants reached Spain’s shores, an 82 percent jump from 2022.

This year, the numbers are already trending far higher, with interior ministry figures showing that by the end of May, 20,854 migrants had reached Spain by sea, up from 8,812 in the same period last year.

Spain is one of the main gateways for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, with the vast majority making the perilous boat journey to try and reach the Canary Islands which lie off the northwestern coast of Africa.

The Atlantic route is particularly dangerous due to the strong currents, with migrants travelling in overloaded, often unseaworthy, boats without enough drinking water.

But it has grown in popularity due to increased vigilance in the Mediterranean.

At its closest point, the Canaries lies 100 kilometres (60 miles) off the coast of North Africa.

But many boats — often long wooden vessels known as pirogues — leave from much further away, setting sail from Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania.

Increasingly they are coming from countries further south such as Gambia and Senegal which lie about 1,500 kilometres (about 1,000 miles) from the Spanish islands.

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