At least 300 people who tried to make the sea crossing from Africa to Europe in three rudimentary boats are missing, rescue organizations announced Monday, which have already mobilized a plane to search for survivors.
“The most important thing is to try to find these people, many are missing at sea, this is not normal, we need more planes to search for them,” said the coordinator of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Walking Borders, quoted by the Associated news agency. Press.
A Spanish Coast Guard Maritime Rescue plane has already sighted one of the vessels, considering it “large”, 132 kilometers southeast of the island of Gran Canaria, with migrants on board, but no further details are yet known.
According to information from the relatives of the migrants, the boat left for the Canary Islands on June 27 from Kanfountine, a small fishing village in the part of Senegal to the south of Gambia, 1,700 kilometers from Tenerife.
The other two boats left the city of Mbour on June 23, four days before the one that was sighted, explained the Spanish NGO Walking Borders.
The Atlantic migration route is one of the deadliest in the world, with around 800 people dead or missing in the first half of this year alone, according to this NGO, also quoted by the Efe news agency.
The Canary Islands have become one of the main destinations for people trying to reach Spain in recent years, with a peak of more than 23,000 immigrants arriving in 2020, according to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
In the first half of this year, more than seven thousand migrants and refugees managed to reach the Canary Islands.
Source: TSF
