Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, Sep 18 (EFE).- Spain’s Maritime Safety and Rescue Society saved at least 641 migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands – a Spanish archipelago off Africa’s Western coast – aboard 15 precarious boats, also known as cayucos, between Tuesday night and Wednesday.
The total includes at least 40 women and about 15 minors, although these figures that are likely to rise as authorities have not yet provided detailed information about the occupants of several of the boats rescued near Lanzarote, according to information gathered by EFE from Maritime Safety and the Emergency Consortium.
At least 451 people arrived in Lanzarote. The first operation took place Tuesday night to rescue a boat, with 40 people of Maghreb origin on board (30 men, eight women, and two children).
Another rescue boat in the same area saved 222 people from four vessels, mostly of sub-Saharan origin, a group of 70, another of 51, a third of 50, and a fourth of 51.
At the moment there are no detailed figures from the passengers. However, EFE witnessed the disembarkation at the port of Arrecife and noted that there were at least several women, two babies, and at least two other minors.
Maritime Safety also assisted another group of 59 people, including eight women and one child. Meanwhile, another boat rescued 72 people (61 men, six women, and five minors) near the island of El Hierro.
In addition, another Maritime Rescue boat saved another vessel with 57 more people near that island, including three women and four minors.
Moreover, another ship from this public agency was deployed early Wednesday after detecting a rubber boat on its radar that reached a beach in Lanzarote.
There were 73 people on board, including four women (one of them was pregnant) and one child.
By late afternoon, three more rescues were reported, one in Gran Canaria with about 76 people on board; another in El Hierro with about 60 people; and a third in Lanzarote, with the number of passengers unknown.
All these rescues in the Canary Islands aligned with the presence of the Vice President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, who came to Tenerife at the request of the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, to assess the migratory flow on the islands and the care of minors.
Between July and August of 2024, 6,267 people arrived in the Canary Islands by sea from Africa, about 2,000 more than in the same two months of 2023, according to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
An increasing number of minors are arriving. The regional government claims responsibility for over 5,300.
The Canary Route for emigration is one of the main irregular maritime access routes to Europe and one of the most dangerous in the world due to the risks involved in crossing the Atlantic from the African coast in small boats to reach these Spanish islands. EFE
jmr/dgp/ics