The merchant ship 'Unisea' has rescued twenty migrants traveling in a small boat about 390 miles (about 800 kilometers) south of the island of El Hierro, one of whom has died, according to official sources from Maritime Rescue to Europa Press.
The boat was spotted last Friday afternoon by a Moroccan fishing boat that notified the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Tenerife, which has been in charge of coordinating the entire operation.
The Moroccan fishing boat reported that it was unable to proceed with the rescue due to its small size, so Maritime Rescue issued a notice to sailors and located the nearest ship, the 'Unisea', which was about 70 miles away and six hours of navigation.
Once in the area, the 'Unisea' requested the help of another ship to provide shelter given the state of the sea, so Maritime Rescue located another merchant ship, the 'Traigen', about 16 miles away and diverted it to the place.
This Saturday, the 'Traigen' arrived in the area and provided shelter, allowing the crew of the 'Unisea' to proceed with the rescue of the migrants traveling aboard the boat.
Specifically, it is about 19 people, 13 of them men and 6 women, and the body of a deceased person was also recovered. Likewise, the captain of the 'Unisea' informed Maritime Rescue that eight of the rescued people were in poor condition.
From that moment, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Tenerife activated the evacuation operation of those people, which has been carried out this Sunday morning.
The Air Force has been in charge of the evacuation tasks, in which two Superpuma helicopters and a CN235 Viga aircraft from Air Rescue Group 82 (SAR) of Wing 46 have participated, which has acted as a communications bridge.
The first of the helicopters has evacuated five people - two men and three women - and arrived on the island of El Hierro at around 11:30 a.m. The second has evacuated another three people - two men and one woman - and landed this noon.
The ship 'Unisea' was heading to Gran Canaria, so it continues sailing towards the island with eleven of the rescued migrants on board, with its arrival scheduled for this Monday or Tuesday due to the distance from its current position.
