Boat carrying migrants sinks off coast with 30 feared dead in disaster

22 June 2023 , 13:40

1305     0

At least 30 migrants are believed to have died when a boat sank off the Canary Islands (Image: Adriel Perdomo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

At least 30 migrants are feared to have died when a boat sank off the Canary Islands.

Moroccan authorities are reported to have rescued 24 people off the ship in the North Atlantic - but human rights charities say around 60 may have been on board, with many of them remaining unaccounted for.

Helena Maleno Garzon, from the charity Walking Borders, estimated that the number of dead stood at 39 - and said people on the craft may have waited for longer than 12 hours before help arrived.

She added that four women and a baby were among the dead when boat sank approximately 100 miles south-east of Gran Canaria on Wednesday.

More than 168 migrants were later rescued at sea in two separate boat crossings (Adriel Perdomo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

She said: "It's torture to have 60 people, including six women and a baby, waiting for more than 12 hours for a rescue in a flimsy inflatable boat that can sink"

Woman who fled dangerous Iran watched 16 people drown in dinghy disaster

Spanish authorities sent a helicopter to assist with the rescue operation, and later confirmed that the bodies of a man and a child had been recovered from the scene.

A total of 168 migrants were later rescued near the Canary Islands in two separate incidents in the early hours of Thursday morning, local emergency services said.

Officials took 53 people in this group to Lanzarote, while another 61 migrants were moved to Gran Canaria.

Last week, at least 78 people were reported to have died when a ship capsized in the Mediterranean sea off Greece.

The crammed vessel was sailing from Libya to Italy when it was intercepted by Greek coastgaurds.

Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas