Two new rescues at the end of Sunday raised to 1,173 the arrivals of migrants to the Canary Islands during the weekend, the highest figure in 48 hours since November 2020, and this morning Salvamento Marítimo has provided help to another 92 people located east of Lanzarote.

In addition, the emergency services have just been alerted about the arrival shortly in the south of Tenerife of a new cayuco.

In total, between Saturday and Sunday the archipelago received 18 canoes, boats and inflatable boats, with rescues on five islands: Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and El Hierro.

The last ones correspond to El Hierro: a cayuco with thirteen sub-Saharan men that reached by its own means the port of La Restinga, the sixth of the weekend, and a zodiac with 33 men and six women, also sub-Saharan, to which Maritime Rescue rescued in waters east of Gran Tarajal (Fuerteventura).

Among those arriving on Saturday and Sunday are more than 200 minors, according to the count made by the Red Cross. And in islands such as El Hierro, with a reception network of few places, it has been necessary to charter a passenger ferry to transfer this Monday to the new arrivals to Tenerife, since the around 500 people it has received in two days completely exceed its capacity.

Throughout Saturday, 469 migrants managed to reach the Canary coasts in seven boats that arrived in Tenerife, two cayucos; El Hierro, three cayucos; and Lanzarote, where two boats arrived, according to data provided by the emergency services.

On Sunday, 704 people arrived on the coast or were rescued (the highest figure in a single day so far this year), in eleven boats: four inflatable boats in Lanzarote, three canoes in El Hiero; two cayucos in Tenerife, a cayuco in Gran Canaria and a pneumatic in Fuerteventura.

Already this morning, the Guardamar Polimnia has rescued another 92 people in two boats in waters near Lanzarote: one with 47 immigrants of sub-Saharan origin (44 men, one woman and two minors) and another with another 45 of Maghrebi origin (41 men and one woman).

And, around 8.00 am, the emergency services have been alerted about the location of a cayuco that is arriving in the south of Tenerife and on which there is still no data.

  • immigration
  • Canary Islands