Five migrants found dead off the Canary Islands, rescue services announce

Five migrants were found dead on Wednesday aboard a boat off the coast of the Canary Islands, Spanish rescue services announced on Thursday June 20. At least 68 others were rescued, said the same source. The canoe was spotted in the afternoon when it was about 800 km south of Tenerife, one of the islands of this Spanish archipelago located near the northwest coast of the African continent.

The number of migrant arrivals there has been increasing again in recent weeks. Heavily used in recent years due to the tightening of controls in the Mediterranean, the route to the Canaries, dangerous and often deadly, recorded a record influx of migrants in 2023. According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, the archipelago saw the arrival of 39,910 migrants throughout the year. This figure is 154% higher than in 2022 and exceeds the previous record from 2006.