500 people have arrived in the Canaries in nine boats in 48 hours

Over 500 irregular immigrants have arrived in 9 boats on Canarian shores in the last 48 hours, after two more cayucos with 136 people on board, including a baby, reached the islands yesterday morning (Tuesday), according to data provided by Maritime Rescue, the Red Cross and the emergency services.

With this figure, the total number of people who have reached the islands this month alone is now 2,060, which represents 20% of the total for the year to date.

According to the fortnightly record published by the Ministry of the Interior, between January 1^st and August 15th, a total of 9,864 people arrived on the islands in the first seven and a half months of 2023, with more than 700 added last week.

Of the last two cayucos that arrived yesterday, one was in Los Cristianos (south of Tenerife) and another in La Restinga (El Hierro), with a total of 136 people on board.

The second one was spotted by the crew of a fishing boat, a mile and a half away from the port, with 86 men, one woman, and a baby in it, all sub-Saharan Africans. Maritime Rescue went to meet the boat and guided it safely to the El Hierro pier.

The other one was sighted about 15 miles from Punta de Rasca, off the southeast coast of Tenerife. The Salvamar Alpheratz rescue boat escorted it to the port of Los Cristianos. On board were 48 people, again of sub-Saharan origin, four of whom are minors. The Red Cross reported that one of them needed to be referred to a health centre for treatment.

The day before, on Monday, another seven boats reached the islands, meaning the number of migrants arriving in the Canaries that day was 364. The emergency services treated 47 people who were travelling aboard a cayuco sighted in the vicinity of the La Restinga pier in El Hierro.

Previously, Maritime Rescue had intercepted two boats with 73 people on board off the coast of Lanzarote and in the south of Gran Canaria. The first was reported by a merchant ship 100 miles south of Gran Canaria at midday on Monday, and they sent the Salvamar Macondo to go to the location given, where it rescued 47 people of sub-Saharan origin, 46 males and a female.

A little later, CECOES reported that another boat had reached a steep and difficult-to-access area near Charco del Palo, in the Lanzarote municipality of Haría, that afternoon. This small pneumatic boat had transported 26 people across the Atlantic.

Both a Guardia Civil patrol and the Salvamar Al Nair went to the point they were reported to be and rescued the migrants transferring them to Puerto Naos in Arrecife.

These two boats joined another two that had arrived on the coasts of Lanzarote and El Hierro in the morning with 128 sub-Saharan migrants on board. The last migrants on Monday arrived in a boat with 68 people on board at a beach in Los Cristianos in the south of Tenerife, and the last of the day arrived at the Arguineguín pier in Gran Canaria with 48 people on board.