One of the 68 survivors from the cayuco rescued 815 kilometres south of El Hierro passed away on Thursday aboard the cruise ship bound for Tenerife, bringing the total number of immigrants who lost their lives trying to reach the Canary Islands to six.
Sources from Maritime Rescue have informed EFE that at 17:15 today, they received a call from the Insignia cruise ship, when it was about 270 kilometres from Tenerife, reporting that one of the survivors was in critical condition.
A Salvage helicopter departed from Tenerife South airport, but at 18:11 a second call from the cruise ship reported that this person had passed away, so the aircraft returned to base.
With this latest fatality, six people have lost their lives in this new tragedy on the so-called ‘Canarian Route’ of immigration, deemed the most perilous in the world.
Among the occupants of this cayuco, which was rescued by the Insignia cruise ship en route from Gambia to Tenerife, are three women and three children.
The boat was spotted on Wednesday afternoon by a tanker en route to Brazil, the Philipp Oldendorff, which alerted the Spanish authorities and provided assistance to the occupants of the cayuco, though without being able to lift them on board (it is a 254-metre-long ship, with a height that made the operation dangerous).
Salvage diverted the Insignia cruise ship to their position, which shortly after midnight managed to safely bring the survivors on board and recover three of the other five bodies.
The other two individuals remained on the cayuco, as rough sea conditions prevented their retrieval.
However, the crew of the Insignia left a tracking device on the cayuco, expected to guide the Guardamar Urania to their location, sailing to meet them for hours with instructions to collect the two bodies.
Navigational challenges complicate the forecasts, state the sources, but likely the Urania will sight the cayuco tonight, after making an initial stop alongside the cruise ship to ascertain if any assistance is required.
Initially, the Insignia will continue towards the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where it is scheduled to dock on Friday around 6:30 am with the 67 survivors and the four deceased onboard.
The cruise ship’s crew informed Salvage that the majority of the rescued migrants, all Sub-Saharan, are recovering well on board and consuming food and water independently. However, two are under observation, displaying signs of dehydration. One of them has tragically passed away.
The entire operation has been coordinated by the Tenerife Maritime Rescue Centre, with the collaboration of the Maritime Authority.
Canarian Route
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According to the latest official count from the Ministry of the Interior (as of 15th June), so far this year 18,977 immigrants in 290 vessels have been rescued on the Canarian Route, triple the number compared to the same period in 2023 (5,914).
The NGO Caminando Fronteras estimates that in the first five months of the year, 4,808 people have died or gone missing in the Atlantic while attempting to reach the Canary Islands, an unprecedented figure equivalent to nearly 32 deaths daily, or one every 45 minutes.
The information collected by this group from families indicates that 47 canoes with all their occupants have been lost in the ocean.
One of these, which set off from Mauritania in January, was found on 15th April on the other side of the Atlantic, off the coast of Brazil, with nine bodies on board.
According to data published by the European Border Agency (Frontex), one in four immigrants rescued at sea between January and May en route to the EU were on the Canarian Route: 17,976 out of a total of 66,265 (27%).
The remainder corresponded to the Eastern Mediterranean, with 21,773 survivors; the Central Mediterranean, with 21,330; and the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea, with 5,186.
Nearly half of the individuals who have risked their lives this year on canoes bound for the Canary Islands, 8,047, are from Mali, a country plagued by terrorism and internal violence for years, now further destabilised across the Sahel region.
Another 3,728 are from Senegal, 1,682 from Mauritania, and 1,180 from Morocco, according to Frontex figures until May.
