Coastguards rescue 124 migrants off Spain’s Canary Islands

One boat carrying 66 people was located 10 nautical miles south of Gran Canaria

By Reuters
March 29, 2024
Migrants arrive on a boat at La Restinga dock in the municipality of El Pinar on the Canary Island of El Hierro, Oct. 21, 2023.—AFP/File
Migrants arrive on a boat at La Restinga dock in the municipality of El Pinar on the Canary Island of El Hierro, Oct. 21, 2023.—AFP/File

GRAN CANARIA, Spain: Spanish coastguards rescued 124 migrants, including young children and a person needing a wheelchair, from two wooden boats in the seas off the Canary Islands on Thursday.

One boat carrying 66 people was located 10 nautical miles south of Gran Canaria, Spain’s Red Cross said. The second, carrying 58 people including two women, was found nearby.

The EU border agency Frontex says the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands is currently the busiest route for irregular migration from West Africa into the European Union. The island group is around 160-km from West Africa at the closest point. All the migrants were taken to Gran Canaria.