At least five people have died and dozens more are feared dead after a boat carrying West African migrants ran into trouble in the Atlantic Ocean, with 44 survivors rescued near Spain’s Canary Islands.
Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said a plane spotted the “precarious” boat drifting about 120 kilometers (74 miles) south of Gran Canaria on Wednesday afternoon.
Three survivors were immediately evacuated by helicopter to a hospital, while the remaining 41 migrants were taken by boat to safety and arrived early Thursday at the port of Arguineguín. The Red Cross said all of the survivors were men, some of them minors, from Mali or Senegal.
José Antonio Rodríguez Verona, a Red Cross spokesperson in the Canary Islands, said the survivors were disoriented and severely dehydrated. Some collapsed or vomited after reaching land.
According to accounts given by survivors to the Red Cross, the boat had departed from Gambia and had been drifting at sea for “many, many days.” Some estimated they had been at sea for nearly a month. They said their supplies ran out and that some migrants became ill after drinking seawater.
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Survivors also reported that more than 100 people were originally aboard the boat, including women and a baby. They said people died during the journey and that their bodies were thrown into the ocean.
Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said it found the remains of five people inside the boat but was unable to recover them because of strong winds and waves reaching about 2.5 meters (8 feet).
Separately, Helena Maleno, founder of migrant rights organization Walking Borders, reported that 83 people had died during the journey, including three women and a baby. Maleno said the boat had left Gambia 27 days earlier.
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The number of deaths reported by Walking Borders has not been independently confirmed.
The Atlantic migration route from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands is considered one of the most dangerous routes to Europe. Although arrivals to the archipelago have fallen significantly over the past year, tens of thousands of migrants have died or disappeared on the route in recent years.
