At least 30 migrants fear their death in the Canary Islands disaster

Two charities say more than 30 migrants may have drowned after their boat sank in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands.

A ‘border walk’ and alarm phone said the boat was carrying about 60 people.

Spanish authorities said rescue workers found the bodies of two minors and a man and rescued 24 others – but they don’t know how many people were on board.

The incident puts a new examination on Europe’s response to migration, after a boat sank off Greece last week.

Helena Malino Garzon of Walking Borders said 39 people had drowned, including four women and a child, while Alarm Phone said 35 people were missing. Both organizations monitor migrant boats and take calls from people on board or their relatives.

The boat sank about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Gran Canaria on Wednesday.

“It is torture for 60 people, including six women and a child, to wait more than 12 hours for rescue in a flimsy inflatable boat that could sink,” said Ms. Garzon.

The Spanish rescue services vessel, the Guardamar Calliope, was about an hour’s sail away from the dinghy on Tuesday evening, Reuters reported, citing Spain’s state news agency EFE.

The ship did not help the boat because it was Moroccan officials who took over the operation, sending a patrol boat that arrived on Wednesday morning, 10 hours after it was spotted by a Spanish rescue plane.

The BBC has sent a request for comment to the Moroccan Ministry of Interior.

Angel Victor Torres, leader of the Canary Islands region, called the incident a “tragedy” and called on the EU to put in place a migration policy that “provides coordinated and supportive responses” to the migration issue.

Although the Canary Islands are located off the west coast of Africa, they are part of Spain, and many migrants from Africa travel to the archipelago in hopes of reaching mainland Europe.

The migration route between West Africa and the Atlantic Ocean is one of the deadliest migration routes in the world, and at least 543 migrants died or went missing on that journey in 2022, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The International Organization for Migration said there were 45 debris on the road during that period, but conceded that the number “may have been underestimated” because the data is scarce and incomplete.

She added that most of those who make this trip are from Morocco, Mali, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Separately, Spanish authorities also rescued more than 160 people from three other boats near the islands of Lanzarote and Gran Canaria on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

The news comes after a migrant boat carrying hundreds of people sank off the Greek coast last week, and at least 78 people died, although more were feared drowning.