A boat carrying 86 migrants rescued off the Canary Islands

A boat carrying 86 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries was rescued on Monday, July 10, off the Canary Islands, reported a spokeswoman for Spanish rescuers interviewed by AFP. They are 80 men and 6 women, she said, adding that a rescue vessel at sea was taking them back to the island of Gran Canaria, where they should arrive shortly before 9 p.m. (Paris time).

A plane sent by the rescuers had initially estimated that the number of people on board this boat could be“about 200” and that it seemed to correspond to a boat that left Senegal almost two weeks ago and went missing with around 200 people on board, according to the NGO Caminando Fronteras. But the Spanish sea rescue service admitted to having made a mistake in its estimate.

For several years, the migratory route to the Canary Islands has been particularly busy due to the tightening of controls in the Mediterranean. Shipwrecks are frequent there, the crossing being particularly dangerous because of the strong currents and the state of the boats.