Overloaded boat carrying 280 migrants reaches Spain’s Canary Islands

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) – A small boat carrying 280 migrants reached the Spanish Canary Islands on Tuesday evening.

The passengers of the migrant ship were mainly from Subsaharan Africa and included two women and 10 minors, emergency services said.

“I’ve never seen a boat like this with so many people on board,” Txema Santana, journalist and local migration adviser, posted on X. “When you see the map of how far they traveled you won’t believe it.”

Santana said the migrants took off from Senegal. They were found more than 1,300 kilometers (807 miles) away just off the island of El Hierro.

Other migrant ships that take off from Morocco or Western Sahara only need to travel distances of around 100km to 200km (62m 124m) to reach the nearest islands. Even so, it is a dangerous journey.

From January to October, nearly 15,000 migrants have reached Spain’s Canary Islands – up 20% from 2022.

This year, Spain has seen an increase in the number of migrants attempting to cross from Senegal, which faced political upheaval after a key opposition figure was arrested and his political party was suspended.

On Monday, Senegal’s navy said it had intercepted boats carrying 600 migrants in the Atlantic waters in three days.