The bodies of four deceased migrants were found on a migrant boat near the Canary Islands. Nineteen others have been hospitalized, the Spanish Red Cross reports to Reuters news agency, sixteen of whom are in a worrying condition.
The migrants were spotted by a fishing boat some 200 kilometers south of El Hierro, one of the smallest and westernmost islands in the archipelago. Subsequently, the Spanish coast guard launched a rescue operation, in which, among other things, three helicopters were deployed.
Risky crossing
Many migrants still venture the risky crossing from the African mainland to the Canary Islands. UN refugee agency UNHCR had fewer than 2,700 migrants on the route in 2019. Last year there were at least 22,000. In the first months of this year it was about spacious 3500 migrants.
Hundreds of people died or were missing, according to the UNHCR. They regularly make the trip on the open sea in overcrowded, small wooden boats with unreliable engines.
Partly because of the corona crisis, the migrants are fleeing their native soil. The pandemic has increased poverty and unemployment.
–
