The Spanish rescue service at sea today collected at least 300 Immigrants trying to reach the Canary Islands by dangerous boats, with nine of them being held by a submerged rubber dinghy.
The rescue service reported that does not know about drownings, as reported by a humanitarian organization.
Helena Maleno, founder of the Walking Borders immigration watchdog, said 18 people had died trying to cross the dangerous border into Africa. to the island of Lampedusa. Reuters was unable to confirm this number from an independent source.
The rescue service said on its Twitter account that 319 immigrants were rescued by six vessels, one of which carried 120 people, and were transported to Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.
Reuters footage shows dozens of people wrapped in red blankets arriving at the port of Arginegin in a rescue boat before dawn and disembarking at the dock with the help of emergency services workers wearing masks and protective uniforms.
Ten people, including a pregnant woman and a baby, were taken to health centers, but none of them are in danger.
The islands off the coast of West Africa have become the main destination for migrants trying to reach Spain, with a much smaller number trying to cross the Mediterranean into the Spanish hinterland.
In total, 22,316 immigrants arrived illegally in the Canary Islands in 2021, compared to 23,271 in the previous year. Last year was one of the years with the highest number of crossings in the last decade, according to the Interior Ministry.
According to the Walking Borders, more than 4,400 migrants, including at least 205 children, went missing at sea trying to reach Spain in 2021, more than double that by 2020, and most since the organization began counting them in 2018.
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