According to two charities, more than thirty migrants may have succumbed when their boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean near the Canary Islands.
Walking Borders and Alarm Phone reported that the boat carried approximately sixty passengers. Authorities in Spain reported that rescuers discovered the corpses of a child and an adult and rescued 24 others, but they did not know how many people were onboard. Last week, a boat sank off the coast of Greece, drawing renewed attention to Europe's response to migration.
Helena Maleno Garzon of Walking Borders reported that 39 people, including four women and an infant, had drowned, while Alarm Phone reported that 35 people were missing. Both groups keep an eye on boats carrying migrants and take calls from those traveling on the boats as well as their families. On Wednesday, the boat went down roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the south-east of Gran Canaria.
According to Ms. Garzon, it is inhumane to have 60 people, including six women and a newborn, waiting for a rescue for more than 12 hours aboard a fragile inflatable boat that has the potential to capsize. Tuesday evening, a Spanish rescue ship known as the Guardamar Caliope was reportedly less than an hour's sail away from the dinghy.
The effort was taken over by Moroccan officials, who deployed a patrol boat that arrived on Wednesday morning, 10 hours after it had been seen by a Spanish rescue plane. As a result, the ship did not assist the dinghy in need of assistance because the operation had been taken over by Moroccan officials. The Moroccan Ministry of the Interior has been contacted with a request for comment.
Angel Victor Torres, the leader of the Canary Islands region, referred to the occurrence as a "tragedy" and urged the European Union to adopt a migration strategy that "offers coordinated and supportive responses" to the problem of migration. Torres also requested that the EU establish a migration policy that provides coordinated and supportive responses to the migration issue.
Although they are located in the Atlantic Ocean off the western coast of Africa, the Canary Islands are a part of Spain. As a result, many people migrate from Africa to the archipelago in the goal of continuing their journey to mainland Europe.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the United Nations, at least 543 migrants perished or went missing on the journey between Western Africa and the Atlantic Ocean in 2022. Sources 45 shipwrecks on the route during that time period, but acknowledged the number is "probably underestimated" due to a lack of data.
The majority of expatriates are said to originate from Morocco, Mali, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, and other regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. Overnight on Wednesday and Thursday morning, near the islands of Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, Spanish authorities rescued more than 160 individuals from three other vessels.
The news comes after a migrant boat transporting hundreds of people sank off the coast of Greece last week, with at least 78 confirmed deaths and many more presumed lost. According to the United Nations office for human rights, up to 500 people are still missing, and evidence has been uncovered that casts doubt on the Greek coastguard's account of what transpired.
