A woman without legs, among the 38 people rescued from the boat that arrived in Lanzarote

The last boat rescued in the Canary Islands, the inflatable one rescued this Tuesday 40 kilometers from Lanzarote, included among its 38 occupants a woman without legs, a degree of disability never seen to date among the people who risk their lives on the Canary Route.

The woman, of Maghrebi appearance, appears in a photo taken by the EFE Agency this afternoon in the port of Arrecife, while they disembark her in a wheelchair from the Salvamar Al Nair, the Maritime Rescue boat that rescued her.

She is covered in a padded black coat to protect herself from the cold at sea, even though the sun is beating down on the dock. She has her hood on and smiles at two Red Cross volunteers who offer her help and hand her the entity's characteristic red blanket.

There were six women on the boat, mostly from the Maghreb, but there is also a young sub-Saharan woman who is also being taken in a wheelchair, although in her case she only seems tired or dizzy, because there has been a bit of a swell on the journey, according to the rescue report.

The image of the smiling woman without legs has surprised even the emergency personnel. A veteran of assisting immigrants in the Canary Islands, who has spent more than 20 years coordinating teams in the ports, confesses to EFE that he does not remember anything like it.

They have had cases of blind people, with various disabilities, a man with a leg pointed out and even a person who traveled in a wheelchair inside the boat with which he arrived in Gran Canaria. But never a scene like today's in Lanzarote.