A cruise ship heading from Gambia to Tenerife rescued a cayuco with five corpses and 68 survivors 815 kilometers south of El Hierro tonight, Salvamento Marítimo has informed EFE.
The barge had been spotted in the afternoon by an oil tanker en route to Brazil, the Philipp Oldendorff, which alerted the Spanish authorities and provided assistance to the occupants of the cayuco, although without being able to hoist them on board (it is a ship of 254 meters in length, with a height that made the operation dangerous).
Salvamento diverted the Insignia cruise ship to its position, which managed to safely put the survivors on its deck and recover three of the other five corpses. The other two have remained in the cayuco, because the bad sea conditions prevented their recovery.
However, the crew of the Insignia left a location device in the cayuco, which is expected to allow the Guardamar Urania, which has been sailing to meet it for hours with instructions to collect the two bodies, to reach its position.
The poor navigation conditions complicate the forecasts, the sources specify, but Urania will probably be able to see the cayuco tonight, after making a first stop next to the cruise ship to check if it needs any type of assistance.
In principle, the Insignia will continue its route to the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where it is scheduled to dock this Friday at around 7:00 a.m. with the survivors and the three corpses.
Salvamento has asked its captain for a more precise count with more details about the survivors, because the figure provided so far of 68 people is considered provisional.
The entire operation has been coordinated by the Maritime Rescue Center of Tenerife, with the collaboration of the Maritime Captaincy.
According to the latest official count from the Ministry of the Interior (as of June 15), so far this year 18,977 immigrants have been rescued on the Canary Route in 290 boats, triple the number in the same period of 2023 (5,914).
The NGO Caminando Fronteras estimates that in the first five months of the year 4,808 people have died or disappeared in the Atlantic trying to reach the Canary Islands, an unprecedented figure that is equivalent to almost 32 deaths per day, or one every 45 minutes.
According to the information that this group collects through families, 47 cayucos have been lost in the ocean with all their occupants.
One of them, which had departed from Mauritania in January, was found on April 15 on the other side of the Atlantic, on the coast of Brazil, with nine corpses on board.
According to data published by the European Border Agency (Frontex), one in four immigrants rescued at sea between January and May heading to the EU was on the Canary Route: 17,976 out of a total of 66,265 (27%).
The rest corresponds to the Eastern Mediterranean, with 21,773 survivors; the Central Mediterranean, with 21,330; and the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alborán Sea, with 5,186.
Almost half of the people who have risked their lives this year in cayucos heading to the Canary Islands, 8,047, come from Mali, a country plagued for years by terrorism and internal violence and now also by the instability of the entire Sahel strip.
Another 3,728 are from Senegal, 1,682 from Mauritania and 1,180 from Morocco, according to Frontex figures up to May.
