A tuna boat ran aground early this Wednesday in Lanzarote. At 5:00 in the morning, the sound of the survivors' screams and the boat's alarm contrasted with the usual wind and waves in the area and alerted the residents of La Condesa, in the town of Órzola.
The inhabitants of this area of northern Lanzarote are used to living with the cruelest face of migration on the deadliest route in Europe. They already had to roll up their pants to save lives in two shipwrecks in recent years. On this same coast, eight people died when a small boat capsized in 2020 and a pneumatic boat capsized that left four dead in 2021. Despite the neighbors' fear upon hearing the screams, this time the occupants had better luck.
The tuna boat, with a Moroccan flag, was sailing near the coasts of Órzola when it ran aground in a rocky area. For those who do not know it, this part of the coast is deceptive and with the low tide the pebbles are usually exposed.
The neighbors called Emergencies, approached the boat during the early morning and together with the driver of a zodiac they verified that the occupants of the tuna boat were alive. With the arrival of the firefighters from the Lanzarote Security and Emergency Consortium to the place, the five crew members were able to get off by hanging from a rope and were attended by a large health deployment.
An ambulance from the Canary Islands Emergency Service, another from Emerlan, the firefighters from the Lanzarote Emergency Consortium and Red Cross volunteers moved to the area. In addition, the Civil Guard and the Local Police of Haría were also at the scene.
Five people were traveling on this tuna boat, including a minor, who had been at sea for four days without eating. The first hypotheses of the investigation carried out by the Civil Guard raise whether the crew members stole the boat because they were not paid or whether they were employees of the tuna boat and ended up running aground on the island by chance.
It was barely dawn when the shipwreck of this tuna boat turned a quiet and little-traveled street into a coming and going of uniformed people trying to determine what was the best destination for the five rescued people. All the survivors were of Maghrebi origin and required a Red Cross interpretation service to be able to convey what had happened.
Finally, two adults were transferred to the Doctor José Molina Orosa Hospital, with signs of hypothermia, while two others were referred to a Temporary Foreigners Assistance Center (CATE), as happens with the arrivals of migrants arriving by boat to the island. Meanwhile, the fifth occupant, a minor, was transferred separately, in a Civil Guard vehicle.
When the survivors were relocated, the emergency teams still had to face how to remove the remains of the tuna boat from the area and avoid environmental damage to the sea. Despite this, around 9:00 in the morning, the tuna boat began to burn and forced the firefighters of the Emergency Consortium, who had already left the space, to return to the place.
