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Spain coast guard spots boat during search for missing migrant vessel

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The Spanish coast guard has located a boat carrying around 200 migrants that went missing over a week ago. The boat was found 71 miles south of Gran Canaria, and a coast guard vessel has been dispatched for rescue operations.

The fishing boat had departed from a coastal town in southern Senegal, approximately 1,700km away from Tenerife, with 200 people on board, including many children. Two other similar boats carrying additional migrants are also reported missing, with limited information available. This brings the total number of people missing across the three boats to over 300.

The route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is known to be perilous, and last year alone, at least 559 people died attempting to reach the Spanish islands. The exact number of departures and shipwrecks often goes unreported. The migrants attempting this route typically come from countries such as Morocco, Mali, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, and other sub-Saharan nations.

Despite a decrease in the number of unauthorized arrivals in the Canary Islands in 2022 compared to the previous year, the route remains dangerous, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) emphasizes that the flows are still high compared to previous years.

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Accidents

In the Canary Islands catastrophe, at least 30 migrants are thought dead

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According to two NGOs, more than 30 migrants may have perished after their boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands.

Alarm Phone and Walking Borders reported that the boat was carrying about 60 passengers.

Authorities in Spain said that 24 people were saved, but they did not know how many passengers were on board. They also reported that rescuers discovered the dead of a man and a kid.

After a boat capsized off the coast of Greece last week, the tragedy has renewed attention focused on Europe’s handling of immigration.

While Alarm Phone reported 35 individuals missing, Helena Maleno Garzon of Walking Borders said that 39 people, including four women and a baby, had drowned. Both organizations keep an eye on migrant boats and take calls from passengers or their loved ones.

On Wednesday, the boat capsized around 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Gran Canaria.

“It’s torture to have 60 people, including six women and a baby, waiting for a rescue for more than 12 hours in a flimsy inflatable boat that can sink,” said Ms. Garzon.

According to Reuters, quoting Spanish official news agency EFE, a Spanish rescue service ship, the Guardamar Caliope, was just about an hour’s sail from the dinghy on Tuesday evening.

The mission had been taken over by Moroccan officials, who sent a patrol boat that arrived on Wednesday morning, 10 hours after it had been detected by a Spanish rescue plane, thus the ship did not assist the dinghy, according to Reuters.

The interior ministry of Morocco has received a request for response from the BBC.

The governor of the Canary Islands, Angel Victor Torres, termed the occurrence a “tragedy” and urged the EU to create a migration strategy that “offers coordinated and supportive responses” to the issue of migration.

The Canary Islands located off the western coast of Africa but are a part of Spain, and many migrants from Africa sail there in the aim of travelling to mainland Europe.

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