“Tragedy at Sea: 50 Migrants Feared Dead After Spending 13 Days on the Water Without Rescue”
Around 50 people are believed to have died after a boat heading to the Canary Islands ran into trouble during a 13-day journey on the dangerous Atlantic migration route from West Africa.
The migration group Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said the boat left Mauritania on January 2 with 86 people onboard. The group alerted Moroccan and Spanish authorities after hearing the boat was in distress. Moroccan rescuers managed to save 36 people, but 50 others, mostly from Pakistan, are feared to have drowned.
“Fifty people have died on a boat heading for the Canary Islands, 44 of them Pakistani,” said Helena Maleno, the group’s CEO, on X. “They spent 13 terrible days at sea without being rescued.”
The Canary Islands’ regional president expressed his condolences and called for action as the islands continue to receive record numbers of migrants and refugees arriving by sea. “We cannot just watch this happen,” wrote Fernando Clavijo on X. “Europe and the state need to take action. The Atlantic must stop being Africa’s graveyard. We can’t ignore this humanitarian tragedy.”
Spain’s maritime rescue service, Salvamento Marítimo, said it had no specific information about the incident but had conducted an aerial search after receiving a report on January 10 about a boat that left Nouakchott, Mauritania. A spokesperson said, “We cannot confirm if it was the same shipwreck.”
Last year, 46,843 people reached the Canary Islands via the Atlantic route, an increase from 39,910 in 2023. According to Caminando Fronteras, at least 10,457 people died or went missing trying to reach Spain by sea between January 1 and December 5, 2024. This was a 50% increase from 2023 and the highest since the group began keeping records in 2007. The rise in deaths was blamed on unsafe boats, dangerous waters, and limited rescue resources.
Frontex, the EU border agency, reported that while crossings on the central Mediterranean route dropped by 59% in 2024, crossings to the Canary Islands rose by 18%, largely due to more departures from Mauritania.
