The Spanish coastguard rescued three men who had boarded a tanker arriving in the Canaries from Nigeria by balancing on its rudder just above the waterline.
In a photograph released on Twitter by the coastguard on Monday, the three men are seen perched on the rudder of the tanker Alithini II.
The Maltese-flagged Alithini II arrived in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, on Monday afternoon after an 11-day voyage from the city of Lagos, Nigeria, Marine Traffic, a vessel tracking website, reported.
As reported by the English newspaper Guardian, the men were taken to port and treated by medical services for dehydration and hypothermia, the Coast Guard said on Twitter. Txema Santana, a journalist and immigration consultant for the Canary Islands government, tweeted: «He is not the first and will not be the last. The illegal immigrants don’t always have the same luck».
However, after receiving medical assistance, the three men will have to leave the island and be taken back to Nigeria. According to the Efe agency, in legal terms the three survivors are not considered migrants as those who arrive on boats, but as “clandestine passengers” on a ship. Reason why, after having been assisted for “moderate dehydration”, the whole group will have to return “to the port of origin”, Lagos, without the possibility of staying in Spanish territory and at the expense of the corresponding ship agent.
Dangerous crossings to the Canaries from North Africa have increased dramatically since late 2019, after controls on Mediterranean routes were tightened. In October 2020, four people hid on the rudder of an oil tanker coming from Lagos, hiding for 10 days before being discovered by police as the vessel arrived in Las Palmas.
Spanish data show that seaborne migration to the archipelago increased by 51% in the first five months of the year compared to the previous year. Thousands of people die every year during the journey, which becomes increasingly dangerous due to the use of rickety wooden boats or dinghies.
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