New tragedy on the Canary Islands route: 83 migrants killed in a canoe that left Gambia

The Canary Islands migration route, the deadliest in the world, was once again dyed in mourning yesterday. 83 people, including two women and a baby, died aboard a canoe that left Gambia on August 7 with 127 occupants and was lost at sea without water or food.

The alarm was raised on Wednesday by a Maritime Rescue plane while it was making reconnaissance flights in the area and on the fly, the Guardamar Urania was activated, whose crew found a “dangerous” image when they arrived at the boat, located 120 kilometers from Gran Canaria.

As they have reported, the migrants were completely numb and inert along with five bodies – including two women and the baby – who had to be left on the boat and adrift due to the bad state of the sea. It is unknown if there were more bodies in the canoe, due to the depth of these boats, the poor light at night and the water and remains inside. A Maritime Rescue helicopter has just left to search the area to rescue the bodies of the deceased migrants.

The rescue of the survivors was not easy either due to the waves and the difficulty of the migrants moving, as Maritime Rescue sources have pointed out. The seriousness of three of them forced them to be evacuated at sea by helicopter to hospital centers in Gran Canaria. The Maritime Rescue crew tried to lift a fourth migrant who was “gone and very restless” onto the helicopter, but they were unable to carry out the operation and in the end they opted to transfer him to land in Urania. “Due to the sunstroke, the days at sea and having drunk salt water, he was crazy but he couldn't move,” close sources indicate.

Three more migrants were also taken to the hospital due to dehydration and general discomfort once they arrived at the Arguineguín dock, in Gran Canaria. The same dock where Pope Leo XIV was last June and from which he launched a message of dignity and solidarity towards migrants, disgracing Europe for its lack of action.

“They were authentic living corpses,” Maritime Rescue sources have pointed out. Sources from the Red Cross, who attended to the migrants after their arrival at the Arguineguín dock at 4:15 a.m. (local time), expressed the same sentiment. “It has been a long time since we have seen something so harsh,” says José Antonio Rodríguez, head of first emergency response for the Red Cross in the Canary Islands.

As he relates, the migrants arrived in a very delicate state of health, in fact, “they could not move.” "They were exhausted and we had to accompany everyone, either in a wheelchair, or with someone because they couldn't walk. They collapsed," he says. Some could not even sit still to give their information to the National Police, at the time of registration.

The migrants reported that they had been at sea for many days, without water or food. They said that they had even drunk sea water. “They were very weak,” he adds. After the first care, the migrants were transferred in the morning to the temporary care center (Cate) in Barranco Seco, in Gran Canaria, where they are being cared for and treated for the consumption of salt water.

From Caminando Fronteras, its manager, Helena Maleno, has confirmed that the canoe is the same one that left on August 7. Likewise, he has recounted the desperation with which the families of the 127 occupants of the boat have lived these days. “You can imagine, numerous relatives calling to find out desperate and thinking about the worst and in the end the tragedy has been confirmed,” said Maleno, who wonders again about the lack of coordination between Spain and Morocco and the rescue means that are put in place to attend to these boats that need urgent help.

The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has considered in the X network that it is “unbearable” that lives continue to be lost at sea. “The Canary Islands cannot get used to or normalize that the Atlantic continues to be a route of death,” he indicated, going on to demand that Spain needs a State migration policy and that Europe must assume its responsibility. "We cannot continue managing migration crisis by crisis. We are talking about life and dignity," he said, after mentioning the situation that is being experienced in Ceuta and comparing it with that suffered by the Canary Islands for years.

Only in the first five months of this year, the NGO Caminando Fronteras has confirmed 635 deaths on the Atlantic route. For every 100 arrivals, 21 deaths are confirmed.