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Almudena Santos
Madrid
Tuesday, 20 August 2024, 16:49
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Some 640 migrants arrived in Spain by boat last weekend with one of the vessels catching fire after it ran aground on one of the Balearic Islands.
The Canary Islands, as has been the norm since the start of the year, witnessed the arrival of most of the foreigners, 428 to be precise. The rest arrived on the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands.
Authorities first received a call out on Friday about 6am regarding a boat with 56 migrants near the island of Gran Canaria. A day later, the emergency phones rang again with a similar alarm. Sailors aboard a whale-watching boat warned there were some 59 migrants, all of African origin, on a vessel off the coast of Tenerife.
While authorities rescued them on Saturday 17 August, they were also forced to go out to sea despite a storm where about 6.42pm some 28 migrants from North Africa were rescued to the south of the island of Formentera. On Sunday, two other boats were located to the west of the island of Conejera and half a mile from the port of Cala d'Or, while another reached Formentera and yet another reached S'Estanyol, in Mallorca.
Sunday also was also not a day of rest for the Canary Island rescue personnel as two vessels carrying almost 198 migrants, were sighted near the island of El Hierro. The first of the alerts came about 11.47am and two hours later, there was a second warning regarding a boat approximately two miles from the same island. They also had to be rescued and escorted to the quay in La Restinga.
The emergency calls continued into the evening where authorities received another call out about a jet ski with two North African migrants aboard. The final rescues took place on Monday where 27 migrants were located on a vessel during the early morning in waters close to the island of Lanzarote. Two women aboard needed to be taken to hospital. Meanwhile, another vessel was located a few hours later near the island of El Hierro where 88 people were aboard.
A score of migrants arrived in Formentera after the boat they were travelling in caught fire. No persons were injured. Before that, another 39 migrants arrived on the same island - 25 of them were rescued about 6am and 17 about 7.30 am. The last of the boats intercepted by Spain's maritime rescue service was occupied by 18 migrants about 3pm off the coastline of S'Estufador.
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