The emergency services rescued alive between Wednesday night and Thursday morning more than half a thousand people, including a woman in labor and her newborn baby, who were traveling from the western coast of Africa to the Canary Islands aboard five cayucos, as explained by Maritime Rescue sources. In total there were 516 people rescued in less than 12 hours. Seven people had to be evacuated to health centers in El Hierro and Tenerife, and one of them later died in hospital. In addition, between 10 and 12 had died at sea, according to survivors. “It has been a crazy night,” spokespersons for the public organization summarize.
The frenetic movement of the early morning began on Wednesday afternoon, when the Norwegian merchant Ramform Atlas He located a boat with a hundred people that was sailing about 200 kilometers from El Hierro. He went out in search of her, from Tenerife, the Guardamar Urania. Upon arriving at the reported point, shortly after nine at night, a canoe was found with some 192 people on board – including eight citizens of Pakistan and two from Bangladesh – that had been traveling for eight days. On board was a woman who had given birth two days earlier and a second pregnant woman. According to sources from the public body, both the mother and the baby were calm. The rescue teams were able to see another boat with 160 people a short distance away, for whose assistance the Guardamar was mobilized. Talia.
The Helimer 201 helicopter rescued the mother and her baby to take them to a hospital in Tenerife. The Urania carried out the rescue efforts and remained at the scene waiting for the Taliawho rescued the second group at 4:30.
At the same time, the two seakeepers received notice of the existence of a third canoe in the area, which was found by the Salvamar Adhara, mobilized in an emergency from the port of La Restinga (El Hierro). On that boat, Salvamento has encountered the most serious situation of the three rescues, according to the Efe agency: there are 67 people (including at least three women) from Ghana, Senegal, Guinea Bissau and Mali. The survivors stated that they had left 13 days ago from Nouakchott (Mauritania) and that between 10 and 12 companions died during the crossing, whose bodies were thrown overboard. Eight of those rescued in that canoe had to be evacuated to medical centers in Tenerife, and one of them later died in the hospital.
The fourth of the rescues on Wednesday night, with 44 people (including three women and two minors) who were drifting between Tenerife and La Gomera aboard a cayuco, brings to 461 the number of African immigrants rescued with life this morning on the Canary Islands route. That fourth cayuco was sighted around 11:00 p.m., drifting between the two islands. Those rescued were transferred to Los Cristianos shortly before five in the morning.
On this Thursday morning, a fifth cayuco was located in the vicinity of Punta de Rasca (Arona, Tenerife), in which 55 men of sub-Saharan origin were traveling and who arrived in Los Cristianos by their own means, accompanied by Salvamar. Menkalinan.
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The arrival of immigrants had slowed in recent weeks, after the peak experienced at the beginning of the year. Arrivals to the Canary Islands have increased by 259.6% compared to last year, reaching 17,117 registered people. Between January and February, 11,932 migrants entered the islands irregularly, in March there were 1,183, in April around 2,800 and this last month of May, 1,135.
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