Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

MIGRANT CRISIS

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

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

MIGRANT CRISIS

Social media instigators of mass migrant crossing to Spain in court

More than 150 people have appeared in a Moroccan court for alleged incitement of illegal migration, a government spokesman said on Thursday, after a failed mass attempt to reach Spain which was promoted on social media.

Published: 20 September 2024 09:13 CEST
Social media instigators of mass migrant crossing to Spain in court

On Sunday, Moroccan police, who fired tear gas, pushed back hundreds of people who headed towards the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, an AFP photographer said, after social media posts encouraged crossing attempts.

“In the framework of the struggle against calls for clandestine immigration, 152 people appeared before a judge,” government spokesman Mustapha Baitas told a press conference.

He said a total of around 3,000 people had tried to illegally enter Ceuta after calls on social media, but all the crossing attempts failed.

READ MORE: Morocco stops would-be migrants trying to reach Spanish exclave

A police source previously told AFP that 60 people were arrested between Monday and Wednesday last week for “fabricating and disseminating false information on social media” that encouraged “the organisation of collective illegal immigration operations”.

Ceuta and its sister territory of Melilla, wedged on the North African kingdom’s Mediterranean coast, have long been a magnet for irregular migrants, being the only European Union territories on the African continent.

Those heading on Sunday towards the village of Fnideq, which abuts Ceuta, included Moroccans and migrants from other parts of Africa, including some minors, the AFP photographer said.

According to official statistic, one in four Moroccan young people aged 15-24 is neither in the job market, nor in education or training.

The Moroccan interior ministry has said that in August alone, authorities blocked more than 11,300 attempts to cross into Ceuta and about 3,300 into Melilla.

In June, 2022, at least 23 people died when around 2,000 people, many of them Sudanese, stormed the frontier at Melilla attempting to cross.

The main route out of Morocco for irregular migrants hoping to reach Spain remains by sea.

More than 22,300 migrant arrivals were registered this year by August 15 in the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, a 126 percent increase from 2023.

SHOW COMMENTS