(Madrid) Three illegal immigrants who arrived in Spain on Monday at the end of an 11-day journey hidden on the helm of an oil tanker from Nigeria were sent back on board this ship to its port of origin after being briefly hospitalized, Spanish authorities announced on Tuesday.
The company that owns the building “is still responsible for the return to the port of origin”, sources from the prefecture of the Canary Islands, located off the northwest coast of Africa, told AFP.
The tanker arrived there on Monday and these three stowaways were discovered the same day.
A photo shared on Twitter by the Spanish sea rescue services shows these men sitting on the huge rudder, with their feet just above the water, at the rear of this imposing vessel, 183 meters long and 32 meters wide.
“If these illegal immigrants had been on a plane, the airline would have taken care of them,” the prefectural sources told AFP.
Spanish authorities did not provide details of their identity or whether they had applied for asylum or wanted to emigrate.
The presence of these illegal immigrants on a declared boat differentiates their legal status from that of the many migrants who arrive on makeshift boats in the Canary Islands from the African coast.
“They were tired and showed signs of hypothermia and, upon their arrival at the port, they were taken care of by the health services,” the sea rescue services told AFP on Monday.
These three men also had “moderate dehydration and needed hospital treatment”, stressed the 112 emergency services on Twitter.
According to the website vesselfinder.com, the tanker “Alithini II” flying the Maltese flag had sailed from Lagos, Nigeria, on November 17, before arriving on Monday at the port of Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands.