Dozens of people, including a baby, are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants drifted in the Atlantic Ocean for 26 days while attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands.
Rescuers found 45 survivors and several bodies aboard the small fishing vessel, which was reported to have departed Gambia nearly a month earlier with 128 people on board. The survivors were rescued early on Thursday around 120 kilometres, or 74 miles, off Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, according to Spanish news agency Efe.
Survivors said the vessel had set sail for the Canary Islands carrying “more than one hundred people”. Five bodies were found still on board the canoe-style vessel, but rescue teams were unable to recover them because of rough sea conditions. The survivors were later taken to the port of ArguineguĂn.
The vessel was initially spotted overnight by an aircraft operated by Spain’s Maritime Rescue service, which then alerted the authorities. Spain’s Civil Guard said inscriptions on the hull matched those of a boat reported to have left Gambia the previous month.
The journey from the West African coast to the Canary Islands is regarded as one of the deadliest migration routes to Europe, with hundreds of people losing their lives each year while attempting the crossing. By June this year, about 1,300 people had died while trying to reach the Spanish islands, according to the migration-monitoring organisation Caminando Fronteras.
The route from Gambia is among the longest commonly attempted by migrants trying to reach the European Union, stretching roughly 2,000 kilometres, or 1,242 miles. Other departure points along the West African coast include Conakry in Guinea, Bissau in Guinea-Bissau, Saint-Louis in Senegal and Morocco further north.
Spain has continued to face significant migration pressure, including arrivals through the Canary Islands and Ceuta, the Spanish autonomous territory on the North African coast. Ceuta has also experienced large-scale arrivals in recent months, including thousands of people attempting to reach the territory by sea.
The migration issue has become politically contentious in Spain, with critics accusing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government of mishandling arrivals, while the government has accused right-wing groups of exploiting the crisis for political purposes.