At least 18 would-be migrants have been reported dead more than 300 people from seven different boats were rescued by Spain’s emergency services on the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands are just 100 kilometers (60 miles) off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
It stated that 319 people among them 59 women and 24 children from seven different vessels were recovered.
One of the boats purportedly was carrying as many as 120 people. A Maritime Rescue Service spokeswoman stated that Spanish rescue boats reached the boats at different locations overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday.
The spokeswoman for the maritime rescue said that rescue services found nine individuals clinging to a capsized boat 45 nautical miles from the island of Lanzarote.
The boat engaged in that rescue had to handle another rescue immediately. Footage showed dozens of people in red blankets being helped off a rescue boat at the port of Arguineguin by masked emergency workers in protective gear.
Nine adults and one baby had to be transferred for medical care on Lanzarote and the nearby island of Gran Canaria. Most of those rescued are believed to be from North and Central Africa.
The Walking Borders NGO that works with migrants however reported that 18 people on one of the boats had died.
In a tweet by the group’s founder Helena Maleno stated that: “Rescue means were activated too late, despite having the boat’s location.”
In 2021, 22,000 migrants arrived by sea on the Canary Islands, half of the recorded total in Spain.
