A boat carrying 86 migrants – 80 men and 6 women – was rescued on Monday evening about 130 kilometers southwest of the island of Gran Canaria, in the archipelago of the Canary Islands, which are part of Spain and are located near the west coast of Africa. The boat was rescued by a vessel of the Spanish organization Maritime Rescuewhich deals with sea rescues on behalf of the Spanish government.
At the moment it is not clear whether the rescued boat is one of the three shipments from Senegal of which there has been no information for several days and which according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras would have had at least 300 people on board. Salvamento Marítimo said the people aboard the rescued vessel are from sub-Saharan Africa, but did not specify their nationality.
Helena Maleno, who heads Caminando Fronteras, told the news agency on Sunday Reuters that the families of about 300 migrants who left Senegal for the Canary Islands had not heard from their relatives for several days. Maleno had explained that the missing migrants were aboard three boats, two which left more than a fortnight ago and a third on June 27: the first two each had between 50 and 65 people on board, and the third at least 200.
Traveling by sea from the countries of the west African coast to the Canary Islands is considered particularly dangerous due to the strong Atlantic currents: according to data from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, in 2022 more than 1,000 people died trying to reach the Canary Islands by sea, compared to 15,682 landings.