28 September 2024 , 21:31
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Rescue services say they saved 27 of the 84 people aboard the vessel believed to have come from Mauritania
Nine people are confirmed drowned and at least 48 are missing after a boat carrying migrants capsized off Spain’s Canary Islands overnight, rescue services said on Saturday, the latest in a series of such disasters off the west coast of Africa.
Sea rescue teams said in a statement they had answered a distress call off El Hierro, one of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago, shortly after midnight. They managed to save 27 of the 84 people on board.
Anselmo Pestana, head of the Canary Islands prefecture, said survivors had told their rescuers that the boat had set off from Nuadibu in Mauritania, nearly 500 miles (about 800km) away.
They also suggested that there might have been as many as 90 people on board. Four of those rescued were minors, he added.
Pestana was speaking from the port of La Estaca on El Hierro island.
The most critical part of the operation was when the rescue vessels approached the boat in distress, he told journalists, because it was vital that those on board the stricken craft stay calm.
They had to follow the instructions of the rescue crews to ensure their vessel stayed balanced and did not capsize, he added.
He said the migrants had gone two days without food or water, which may have contributed to the panic and the boat capsizing, he said.
Five ships, three helicopters and one plane had taken part in the search and rescue operation, he added.
This disaster follows the death of 39 migrants in early September when their boat sank off Senegal while attempting a similar crossing to the Canaries, from where migrants hope to reach mainland Europe.
Thousands of migrants have died in recent years setting off into the Atlantic to reach Europe onboard overcrowded and often dilapidated boats.
The latest tragedy “again underlines the dangerousness of the Atlantic route”, Canaries regional president Fernando Clavijo wrote on X.
“We need Spain and the EU to act decisively in the face of a structural humanitarian tragedy” as lives are lost “metres from Europe’s southern border”, he added.
In late August, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, visited Mauritania and the Gambia to sign cooperation agreements to crack down on people smugglers while expanding legal means of immigration.
As of 15 August, 22,304 migrants have reached the Canaries since the start of the year, up from 9,864 in the same period the previous year.
Almost 40,000 migrants entered the Canaries in 2023, a record on course to be broken this year, as easier navigation conditions from September tend to lead to a spike in crossing attempts.
The Atlantic route is particularly deadly, with many of the crowded and poorly equipped boats unable to cope with the strong ocean currents. Some boats set off from African beaches as far as 620 miles (1,000km) from the Canaries.
The International Organization for Migration, a UN agency, estimates that 4,857 people have died on this route since 2014.
Many aid organisations say that figure is a massive underestimate. Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish NGO that aids migrants, says 18,680 have died trying to reach Europe.