2023-12-31 19:43:18
BarcelonaA new tragedy on the migration route between the West African coast and the Canary Islands. Between 30 and 40 people have died in the crossing they were making in a canoe located yesterday Saturday about 300 kilometers south of the island of El Hierro with 15 survivors, who explained that they had thrown the corpses of their dead companions into the sea . The vessel had set sail from Mauritania two weeks ago and was located adrift.
All those rescued are men and were taken to a port in El Hierro by helicopter. After two weeks in the open sea, without water or food and at the mercy of the winds and low winter temperatures, the surviving occupants were in a very delicate state of health, according to the health workers who attended them at first. They were very weak and could not articulate any words, according to the Efe agency.
The 112 emergency services report that one of the men rescued had moderate dehydration and was taken to a hospital in Tenerife, while another of the occupants, with the same condition, was evacuated to the hospital in El Hierro.
According to the survivors, the boat lost its course and drifted for many days. The harsh conditions meant that the occupants were dying, but the exact number of fatalities could not be determined. Inside the pirogue were still three corpses.
The Caminando Fronteras collective is surveying the relatives of the occupants of two canoes that, due to their departure date and number of people on board, may be compatible with the data provided by the survivors. One departed from Nouadhibou on December 9 and the other from Nouakchott on December 15.
The year 2023 ends with more than 40,500 people rescued on this migratory route, a number that exceeds that recorded during the so-called cayucos crisis of 2006. Of these survivors, 8,300 were minors and 2,700 were women. This is the most lethal migration route in the world, which has had a sharp rise since the summer, when the political and social situation in Senegal exploded and thousands of young people without jobs or expectations wanted to flee the country. Without the possibility of traveling to Europe regularly and safely, they only have the option of traveling for weeks or months and paying between 2,000 and 3,000 euros for a place on one of the boats that make the journey to the Canaries.
The island of El Hierro, the smallest of the Canaries, with a population of around 11,700 inhabitants, has received a total of 14,951 migrants in canoes since May 2023, among them 3,654 minors and 633 women, a figure that exceeds , for example, the number of people who arrived in Spain in 2023 via the Mediterranean route until December 15: 14,312.
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