Between Tuesday and yesterday, a total of ten boats were rescued in waters near Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, with a total of 495 immigrants on board. Nine of the shepherds were found near the island of Lanzarote with 442 people, including fifty minors and a baby, who were taken to Puerto de Naos. Three of the occupants had to be taken to hospitals due to different injuries. Two of these shepherds were located yesterday morning and the rest during the afternoon, Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, according to reports from Maritime Rescue sources.
The tenth boat was rescued 64 kilometers east of Fuerteventura with 53 migrants of sub-Saharan origin on board, including 11 women and 3 children. The ship was sighted by the Sasemar 101 plane around 10.10 am yesterday and the migrants were rescued by the Salvamar Izar. All the occupants of this boat were apparently in good health, according to a spokesman for Salvament Marítim, who detailed that the migrants were expected to arrive at the port of Gran Tarajal at 3 p.m. local time.
In this regard, the deputy representative of the Government in Las Palmas explained that Migraciones would transfer during yesterday afternoon to the centers of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura the occupants of five of the pneumatic boats that arrived between Tuesday and Wednesday in Lanzarote and thanked “the great effort” of the ministerial department.
Likewise, the Deputy Government Delegate thanked the work of the National Police at the Temporary Care Centers for Foreigners (TASTI), facilities where migrants can only stay for a maximum of 72 hours, as they have managed to divert them promptly and they are there “only a few hours”. “It’s true that we suffered a lot of stress, but we were able to give him an answer”, concluded Teresa Mayans.
During the first half of the year, the crossings of immigrants who try to reach Spain by pasture resulted in 951 lives, one every four and a half hours, the majority heading to the Canary Islands (778, four per day) and on the so-called route Algerian route towards the Levant and the Balearic Islands (102, one every two days), according to data from the report regularly published by the collective Caminant Fronteres, Monitoring the right to life, which warns that some of the routes, “especially the Canary Islands”, are increasing their “deadly capacity”, despite the fact that the official figures reflect a decrease in the number of arrivals in pastureland.
The risk of dying on board a shepherd during the crossing between the coasts of Africa and the Canary Islands has increased during the last year. In the first half of 2023, more than 7,500 people have arrived in the Canary Islands, which is 20% less than a year earlier and, despite this, the number of people who died at sea remains at almost 800, according to data from the Oenagé Walking Borders The balance is that one in ten does not arrive.
According to the oenagés, the chances of arriving alive are reduced to the deadliest immigration route in the world, on board very precarious boats and over distances that can exceed 800 kilometers. In the attempt to reach Spain, immigrants do not only face the difficult crossing at sea. Before boarding they have to avoid the harshness and violence with which the Moroccan security forces try to prevent their attempt to leave. On more than one occasion the Moroccan military have shot them to prevent boarding, especially when the immigrants are sub-Saharan.
