The identities, ages and nationalities of those who died have not been publicised.
A boat of migrants arriving in Spain (Image: Getty)
Seven people have reportedly died during a migrant boat journey to Lanzarote, Spain, after rescuers found two bodies on board and survivors said another five had been put overboard. Spain’s maritime rescuers recovered 132 people, including 120 men and 12 women, from the inflatable boat found around 93 miles northeast of Arrecife, Lanzarote, in the early hours of Monday morning. The circumstances surrounding those deaths remain unclear. The identities, ages and nationalities of those who died have not been publicised.
In a separate incident on Monday, Spain’s search and rescue authorities rescued 59 men from another boat and took them to Arrecife. A further two boats carrying a combined 71 people were rescued. An updated morning tally put the number of survivors rescued from the four boats at 262, CanarianWeekly reports.
“The worst forecasts are coming true,” Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo wrote on X.
“The Atlantic route is once again claiming lives, this time off the coast of Lanzarote. Behind each one is a life, a story, and a family.”
Migrant arrivals in the archipelago have fallen 18% year on year to 11,527 people, according to the office of the Spanish government’s representative in the Canary Islands, The Independent reports.
But the route from West Africa to mainland Europe through the Spanish-owned archipelago remains one of the deadliest migration routes. Experts warn that additional pressure is being put on emergency services, particularly on the smaller and less populated islands.