More than 80 migrants are suspected of having died after a boat with dozens of people on board remained at sea for 27 days before being located near the Canary Islands.
Spanish Salvamento Marítimos teams found the boat on Wednesday, about 65 nautical miles southwest of Arguineguín, on Gran Canaria. There were 44 survivors and five bodies on board.
According to migrant rights activist Helena Maleno Garzón, founder of the Spanish organization Caminando Fronteras, 83 people may have lost their lives during the journey. Meanwhile, Spanish authorities have not been able to confirm the exact number of people originally on the boat.
According to preliminary information, the boat had set off from Gambia, in West Africa, in early August. It is believed to have had around 127 people on board, including an infant.
Severe weather conditions prevented rescue teams from retrieving the bodies. Salvamento Marítimo said high winds and waves of up to 2.5 meters were in the area, making it impossible to remove the five victims from the boat.
The 44 survivors are men from sub-Saharan Africa. Three of them, who were in critical condition, were airlifted to hospital. The other survivors were taken by boat to Gran Canaria, where they arrived in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The incident has brought to light the extreme dangers of the Atlantic route, one of the world's deadliest migration routes. Every year, thousands of people set off from West African countries to the Canary Islands, hoping to reach Spanish territory.
