The recovered bodies of three women migrants were found east of Lanzarote, in the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands.
According to a spokesman for the Spanish Coast Guard, quoted by international agencies, “28 migrants of North African descent” aboard a dangerous small vessel were rescued early in the morning east of Lanzarote.
The spokeswoman explained that according to the testimony of the rescued migrants, 39 people were on board the small vessel, prompting the Spanish authorities to initiate a search operation to try to locate the missing migrants.
Among the 28 rescued were two women, two minors and 24 men.
One minor and three men with symptoms of hypothermia were transferred to the hospital, local emergency services reported on Twitter.
A few hours later, about 80 km from the island of Gran Canaria, also in the Canary Islands, another dangerous ship was discovered and rescued, with 46 migrants on board, including a child and a girl.
Following a rescue by Spanish naval rescue teams, the migrants were redirected to the island of Gran Canaria.
According to the Spanish agency EFE, one of the two rescued children had an unstable and fragile health condition.
The West African route, which crosses the Atlantic Ocean and the west coast of Africa to the Canary Islands, is known to be extremely dangerous due to strong sea currents.
Despite such dangers, the route is attracting more and more migrants, especially from sub-Saharan Africa, who want to reach European territory, with the vast majority on board highly unreliable and overcrowded ships.
Despite tightening controls and travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, migration flows to Europe have not stopped.
Some 2,000 migrants entered Spain illegally in the first 15 days of August, bringing the number of illegal entries registered since the beginning of the year to more than 18,443, Spain’s Interior Ministry reported last week.
This total represents an increase of 54.1% over the same period in 2020.
According to the same data, most of the migrants who arrived in Spain by mid-August did it by sea: 17,060 people on board 1101 ships.
On an annualized basis, this number is 61.5% higher than last year.
For the Canary Islands alone, data indicate the arrival of 8,222 migrants before August 15, more than double the figure for the same period in 2020.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), from the beginning of the year to August 20, at least 428 people have died trying to cross the border towards the Canary Islands, up 102 from the same period last year.
Spain, along with Greece, Italy or Malta, is one of the “advanced” countries in terms of illegal migrants arriving in Europe.
