During the early hours, Maritime Rescue rescued and transported 72 individuals, including two minors, who were aboard a Mauritanian canoe, to the Arguineguín dock, in the southwest of Gran Canaria.
This was a vessel detected by the SIVE navigating about 20.4 kilometers south of Gran Canaria, as reported by a Salvamento Marítimo spokesperson to EFE on Wednesday.
The crew of the Guardamar Talía was responsible for assisting these individuals and disembarking them at the Arguineguín dock, where they arrived around 04:30 hours.
On Tuesday, another 66 individuals arrived in the Canary Islands, specifically in La Gomera and Tenerife, including four children and five women.
The first group arrived on their own with 26 occupants, consisting of 25 men and one woman, at Playa Santiago, in La Gomera, after four days of navigation from Mauritania.
In the second group, a canoe that had also departed four days prior from Mauritania, carried 40 individuals of sub-Saharan origin, including four women and four children, who were rescued and disembarked at the Los Cristianos dock (Tenerife) by Maritime Rescue.
The arrival of individuals in small boats or canoes in the Canary Islands has increased by 259.6% in the first five months of 2024, reaching a total of 17,117 arrivals, as reported by the Ministry of the Interior on Monday.
Across Spain, the increase in irregular maritime migrant arrivals has been 137% in the first five months of the year, totaling 21,926 arrivals, a rise driven by the peak in the number of arrivals in Canary Islands at the beginning of the year, but has since slowed down in recent months.
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By this time in 2023, 106 precarious vessels had reached the Canary shores after navigating what is considered one of the most dangerous routes in the world, and in 2024, 261 have already been recorded.
