Sixty-two people of North African origin occupied the boat found off the Gran Canaria. They have been drifting for more than a week.
Le Monde with AFP
Seven migrants were found dead Saturday aboard a perdition boat off the Spanish Island of Gran Canaria. An eighth died on the ground, announced Spanish relief services, Sunday, November 14th.
In the sixty-two passengers of the boat, drifting for at least one week, three were transported by helicopter to receive emergency care. Several others have been driven to the hospital after arriving on Saturday to Sunday at the port of Arguineguin, have clarified the Canarian Sea Rescuers.
The boat was spotted by a French sailboat around 6 pm (19 hours, Paris time), some 38 miles south of the island of Gran Canaria, according to the maritime rescue service that sent a boat in The area. Upon arrival, rescuers found that seven of the occupants of the Esquif were dead.
The same night, another boat with thirty-six migrants, including a woman and a child, all in good physical condition, was located 8 miles south of Gran Canaria and brought back to Arguineguin, according to the emergency department of the archipelago.
Retrudescence of accidents at sea
This type of drama is recurring on the Spanish coast, that migrants seek to join, despite the dangers, mainly from Morocco or Algeria. A total of 32,713 migrants arrived by the sea in Spain between January and October, or 24.2% more than over the same period in 2020, according to the numbers of the Ministry of the Interior.
According to estimates from the end of September of the International Organization for Migration, 2021 was the most deadly year on the migratory route to Spain, with at least 1,025 dead. The road to the Canary Islands is particularly dangerous. According to IOM, at least 785 people died while trying to reach their coast between January and August of this year.