4 dead as migrant ship arrives at Spain's Canary Islands

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - The Spanish Civil Guard rescued a migrant ship with 64 people in desperate condition and four bodies on board, the Canary Islands emergency services said on Wednesday.

After the rescue, 21 people were treated by healthcare workers and 14 were brought to the hospital as they suffered from a range of conditions from dehydration to hypothermia to trench foot.

Two people are in serious condition and were airlifted to the city of Tenerife, emergency services said.

The boat, which departed from the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, had been at sea nine days before being rescued off the Canary Island of El Hierro on Tuesday night, according to Spanish news agency EFE.

The four people who died were men, according to the EFE. The passengers were primarily men from Senegal, Mali and Guinea, but there were also eight children, one baby and two women.

Already this year, nearly 12,000 migrants had irregularly reached Spain’s Canary Islands between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29, according to Interior Ministry data. That’s up 539% from the same time last year.

Many of the arrivals have been departing from Mauritania.

A month ago, both Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Nouakchott to meet the country’s leaders.

During the meeting, the European leaders expressed their concern about the increase in irregular migration and agreed to pay Mauritania €210 million ($228 million) to curb migration, as well as other significant investments in green hydrogen.

The Canary Islands migration route is among the deadliest in the world. According to NGO Walking Borders, 2023 was also its deadliest year yet, with an estimated 6,618 people dying at sea.