Spanish rescue services announced today that They spotted a boat drifting off the coast of south-east Spainin which they found four bodies of women.

According to the Spanish gendarmerie, which has undertaken the investigation, it appears that these are migrant women who were trying to reach the Spanish coast from North Africa.

Yesterday, Thursday evening, rescuers were informed of the presence of a vessel drifting unruly at a distance of about 11 nautical miles (about 20 kilometers) southeast of Cartagena, a city on the southeastern coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, in which were found “four people who had die”, explained a representative.

In a post on X, the marine rescue services said later today that they were four women, without elaborating. Asked by AFP, the gendarmerie confirmed that the bodies were those of four women, but noted that there was currently no further information on their identities.

That boat, which was towed to the port of Cartagena, may have run out of fuel, according to the gendarmerie.

Spain is one of the main entry points for irregular migrants in Europe.

In 2023, 56,852 irregular migrants, almost twice as many as in 2022 (+82.1%) entered the country, due to an unprecedented number of arrivals in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean.

According to the Spanish non-governmental organization Caminando Fronteras, the number of migrants who died or went missing after trying to reach Spain amounted to at least 6,618 in 2023, an average of 18 people every day.