83 Migrants Including Baby Die After Boat Drifts 27 Days Across the Atlantic to Canary Islands

• A cayuco carrying an estimated 128 migrants left Gambia 27 days before rescue teams located it adrift near Gran Canaria
• Authorities confirmed five bodies recovered and 45 survivors brought ashore, though advocates placed the full death toll far higher
• Among those feared dead were three women and a baby, according to a member of migration advocacy organisation Caminando Fronteras

A small wooden fishing boat carrying more than a hundred migrants from West Africa was found drifting roughly 75 miles south of Gran Canaria after 27 days at sea, in one of the deadliest incidents recorded along the Atlantic migration route this year.

Spanish news agency EFE Noticias initially reported 80 deaths aboard the vessel. However, Helena Maleno Garzon, a Spanish-Moroccan journalist and researcher with advocacy organisation Caminando Fronteras, placed the toll at 83.

"Eighty-three people have died, among them three women and a baby, on a cayuco boat that left Gambia 27 days ago. The survivors have been taken to Gran Canaria. May their souls rest in peace," she wrote on X.

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Official figures confirmed five bodies recovered from the vessel and 45 survivors brought to shore, while authorities estimated the boat had originally carried around 128 people. Survivors speaking to Red Cross workers said more than 100 individuals were on board when the journey began.

Rescue Teams Battle Rough Seas Near Gran Canaria

An alert was raised at approximately 7:40pm, and rescue crews launched operations in difficult sea conditions shortly after midnight.

Three survivors were airlifted to hospitals in Gran Canaria due to the severity of their injuries. The remaining survivors were taken by sea to Arguineguin Port on the island's south-eastern coast, arriving at around 5:20am.

The vessel, a cayuco, a traditional wooden fishing boat commonly pressed into service for the perilous Atlantic crossing, was also brought into Arguineguin Port once the rescue operation concluded.

The Atlantic Route Remains One of the World's Deadliest

The Canary Islands sit close to the coastlines of West Africa and Morocco, making them a frequent destination for migrants attempting to reach Europe. The archipelago has long served as a gateway along one of the most dangerous migration corridors on earth, where thousands of people perish each year aboard overcrowded and structurally unsound boats.

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The 27-day ordeal endured by those on the cayuco that left Gambia underscores the extreme risks migrants face on this route, where exposure, dehydration, and the unforgiving conditions of the open Atlantic claim lives long before any vessel is sighted.

Source: YEN.com.gh