Migrant boat capsize kills seven in Spain’s Canary Islands

By AFP
May 29, 2025
A view shows emergency services trying to rescue migrants from the water, as a migrant boat capsized as rescuers were escorting it to port in Spains Canary Islands, in La Restinga, Spain May 28, 2025, in this screengrab obtained from a video. —Reuters
A view shows emergency services trying to rescue migrants from the water, as a migrant boat capsized as rescuers were escorting it to port in Spain's Canary Islands, in La Restinga, Spain May 28, 2025, in this screengrab obtained from a video. —Reuters

MADRID: Four women and three girls drowned on Wednesday after migrants disembarking an overcrowded boat in Spain´s Canary Islands accidentally capsized the vessel, rescuers said, in the latest tragedy on the perilous route.

Emergency services in the Atlantic archipelago confirmed the seven deaths “after the capsizing of a vessel” in La Restinga port on the island of El Hierro. They said on X that one of the girls was aged five and another 16.

Spain´s maritime rescue service, which located the boat some six nautical miles from shore, said it was carrying 159 people, including 49 women and 32 minors.