Over 80 feared dead as Spanish rescuers save 44 from migrant boat adrift off Canary Islands

Rescue operation off Gran Canaria

Spanish search and rescue teams intercepted a wooden vessel drifting 120 kilometres (65 nautical miles) south of Gran Canaria during the night between Wednesday and Thursday. A Salvamento Maritimo surveillance aircraft initially located the craft on Wednesday afternoon, directing the rescue vessel Guardamar Urania to the location around midnight. Rescuers found 44 surviving men and five bodies on board the boat, which had lost propulsion in open waters. Emergency personnel evacuated three passengers in critical condition by helicopter directly to hospitals in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The rescue ship transported the remaining 41 survivors and the vessel to the port of Arguineguin, docking at 3:30 AM on Thursday, where Red Cross medical teams treated the passengers for acute dehydration.

Weeks adrift in the Atlantic

Survivors recounted that the vessel departed the coast of The Gambia 26 to 27 days before rescue, specifically on 7 August. Spanish Civil Guard investigators reported that inscriptions on the hull matched records of a boat that embarked with 128 people on board. Other passenger estimates from survivor testimonies gathered by the Red Cross and emergency services placed the starting number between 108 and 127 people, including four women and an infant. Rescuers who boarded the craft told news agency EFE that passengers were found in a state of severe physical collapse, suffering from hallucinations, fainting, and complete exhaustion after weeks without adequate food and water.

Toll and identity of the passengers

Helena Maleno, spokesperson and founder of the migrant aid organization Caminando Fronteras, stated that survivors reported 83 people died during the crossing, including three women and an infant girl. Salvamento Maritimo confirmed the recovery of five bodies from the hull, noting that rough weather initially hindered their retrieval. A spokesperson for the rescue service explained to AFP that further alleged victims had not been located or recovered in the water, leaving official counts limited to the bodies retrieved directly from the boat. Jose Antonio Rodriguez Verona, a Red Cross spokesperson in the Canary Islands, confirmed that the surviving passengers were all men, including several minors, originating from Mali, Senegal, and Gambia.

Political response and regional migration pressure

Fernando Clavijo, President of the Canary Islands regional government, demanded structural migration policy reforms from Spain and the European Union following the incident. Clavijo connected the loss of life to broader migration pressures, pointing to a deadly influx of migrants during July at the North African Spanish enclave of Ceuta, and insisted that authorities cannot continue managing migration from crisis to crisis.

What we are experiencing in the Canary Islands and these days also in Ceuta shows once again a reality: Spain needs a state migration policy, and Europe must assume its responsibility.

Clavijo stated that the Canary Islands cannot accept the Atlantic remaining a death trap. Data compiled by Caminando Fronteras indicates that over 1,300 migrants died while attempting to reach Spanish shores in the first five months of 2026. While arrivals to the archipelago declined from a peak of more than 46,000 in 2024 following stepped-up maritime patrols and cooperation with origin countries, the route from Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania remains among the most perilous due to long open-water distances and precarious wooden cayucos.