A boat with migrants sank in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the island of Gran Canaria. A man and a woman died, and 83 other migrants were rescued by the Spanish coast guard.
The boat was spotted around 1:30 a.m. 15.7 kilometers from the island of Gran Canaria. Shortly after 5 o’clock in the morning, the migrants were disembarked at the port of Arginegin Island. Four people were taken to hospital with minor injuries. According to the authorities, no one has gone missing.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Spain, as of July 15, 14,021 migrants have arrived illegally in the country since the beginning of the year. The majority (7,590 migrants) reached the Canary Islands, where the number of arrivals fell by 18.5 percent compared to the same period in 2022.
The Spanish humanitarian organization Caminando Frontera counts at least 951 migrants who have died trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of this year. Most of the deaths (778 migrants) did not occur in the Mediterranean Sea, but in the so-called Canary Way between West Africa and the Canary Islands.
This route is known as one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world. At least 300 migrants have gone missing this month trying to cross from Senegal to the Canary Islands. Yesterday, seventeen bodies of possible migrants headed for the Canary Islands washed ashore off the coast of Senegal’s capital, Dakar.
According to the Spanish human rights organization, almost 800 migrants have already died on this route this year. According to data from the UN’s International Organization for Migration, at least 559 people, including 22 children, died while traveling in 2022.
Source : HLN
