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Europe|Dozens Feared Dead After Migrant Boat Sinks Off Spain
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/world/europe/spain-migrant-ship-canary-islands.html
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At least nine people are known to have died in a sinking off the Canary Islands and 48 more are missing, the latest disaster on the perilous Atlantic crossing from West Africa.
Sept. 30, 2024, 2:52 p.m. ET
Spanish authorities are searching for dozens of migrants who are missing after their boat sank on Saturday off the Canary Islands, killing at least nine people. It is the latest deadly episode along the crossing from West Africa.
What happened in this sinking?
A boat with 84 migrants aboard capsized last weekend off the island of El Hierro in the Canary Islands, which are part of Spain, the authorities said on Monday. The maritime authorities received a distress call after midnight on Saturday. Nine people were found dead, 27 were rescued and the authorities were searching for the other 48.
“There is little expectation that some of the people that are still considered missing will actually be found and saved,” said Jorge Galindo, a spokesman for the global data institute at the International Organization for Migration.
That would make this the deadliest such sinking in Spanish waters since at least 2014, he said. But the route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is vast, and there have been deadlier disasters outside Spanish waters in recent years.
How many West Africans are trying to cross and why?
Since 2020, despite ebbs and flows, migration has been relatively high on the route, said Andrea García Borja, the project coordinator of the migration organization’s Missing Migrants Project. As of Sept. 22, about 29,500 migrants had made the trip this year, according to the organization. That’s about double the number from January through September of last year.
