122 people rescued from an inflatable boat near Lanzarote, the most overcrowded in its history

The Salvamar Al Nair of Salvamento Marítimo intercepted at 11:00 PM last Tuesday an inflatable boat in which 122 people were traveling on board. Sources from Lanzarote Emergencies have stated that never before had a single makeshift boat of this kind, with so many people crammed inside, arrived on the island.

Sources from Salvamento Marítimo have confirmed to La Voz that 122 people were traveling in the inflatable boat, including nine women and one minor, and that all of them were rescued from a single vessel.

On these types of inflatable boats, an average of 60 people usually travel per boat, which is already dangerous for its occupants due to its instability and lack of life-saving equipment. In mid-June, a boat had already arrived on the island that exceeded this average, cramming 80 people inside.

"It is the first time that a single one with so many people has arrived on the island of Lanzarote," insisted the manager of the island's Consortium of Emergencies and Security, Enrique Espinosa. Salvamento became aware of this vessel after a call to Emergencies. Then, its occupants were located by the Sasemar 101 helicopter, one of Salvamento Marítimo's surveillance planes, and subsequently intercepted by the Salvamar Al Nair.

These people were intercepted twenty kilometers from the island and transferred to the port of Arrecife around 1:30 AM.

Meanwhile, Morocco rescued another of the boats that had taken advantage of the calm sea to make their journey towards the archipelago and whose occupants needed assistance.

The arrivals of migrants heading to the Canary Islands by small boat, inflatable boat, or cayuco have decreased by 67.2%, with data from January to June 30. In total, until then, 3,708 people had managed to reach the archipelago alive, 7,613 fewer than in the same period of the previous year.

The latest report from Caminando Fronteras' Monitoring the Right to Life places the Canary Islands migratory route as the deadliest of the Spanish routes, with 635 victims in five months.