The death toll from the inflatable boat rescued early this morning by Salvamento Marítimo 130 kilometers northeast of Lanzarote could rise to thirteen, as survivors report that ten companions disappeared at sea, in addition to the three bodies recovered.
Two sources from the emergency services at the Arrecife dock (Lanzarote) have confirmed to EFE that the survivors claim they were at sea for five days, the last few without water, and that the total number of occupants on the boat was close to eighty.
Specifically, they state that ten people are missing.
The 65 people rescued by the rescue vessels Salvamar Ácrux and Salvamar Al Nair arrived on land in very precarious conditions, to the point that 17 had to be hospitalized, some in serious condition, according to the 112.
The majority suffered from hypothermia, a situation that is consistent with the fact that part of the boat's passengers fell into the water as the rescue boats approached, as reported by Salvamento.
In fact, emergency personnel at the Arrecife dock with experience in many rescues have confessed to EFE that this has been one of the toughest assists they remember to date.
The NGO Caminando Fronteras had already warned that, according to families, the number of people who had left on that boat from Tan Tan (Morocco) towards the Canary Islands was 82.
And that same figure was what Salvamento Marítimo initially provided upon the arrival of its vessels in Lanzarote: 78 survivors on the rescue boats, one evacuated to a hospital in Gran Canaria by helicopter in critical condition, and three bodies.
Early in the afternoon, the state-owned company corrected the final count, specifying that there were 65 survivors (including the one evacuated by helicopter) and three deceased individuals (two men and one woman).
The 65 who arrived alive on land are 56 men and nine women, including nine minors (seven boys and two girls).
This is the third major tragedy reported so far in September on the Canary Islands immigration route, considered by the United Nations as one of the most dangerous in the world.
On the 3rd, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 44 people south of Gran Canaria who had been at sea for 26 days in the Atlantic, after having departed from Gambia towards the islands in a cayuco.
Rescuers reported that there were at least five bodies on the vessel that they could not recover due to the rough sea conditions.
However, information provided by survivors and their families indicates that the total death toll from that journey was 83 people.
This Wednesday, it was reported that at least one seven-year-old migrant girl died and another 27 people remain missing after the shipwreck, last Sunday in Mauritanian waters, of a cayuco that had departed from Gambia bound for the Canary Islands.
El Hadji Kébé, president of the Association of Senegalese in the port city of Nouadhibou, located 450 kilometers north of Nouakchott, explained to EFE that, according to testimonies from survivors collected by his NGO, 65 people were traveling on board the vessel, including eleven women.
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