Twelve African migrants who were rescued after their boat capsized in the Atlantic arrived on Spain’s Canary Islands on Friday as hopes faded that roughly 50 others who are still missing will be found alive.
The 36 other survivors of the accident were brought by a rescue ship into Puerto de los Christianos on Tenerife late on Thursday while three bodies have so far been retrieved from the sea.
The 48 were plucked from the Mediterranean by two maritime rescue vessels on Thursday after their fishing boat overturned in three-metre waves whipped up by strong winds, around 100 nautical miles south-west of Tenerife, as it was being approached by one of the Spanish boats.
Two Salvamento Maritimo ships as well as a French naval vessel backed by spotter planes and helicopters continuing the sea search Friday for signs of the missing migrants.
But Jose Segura, the government delegate of the Canary Islands, told reporters there was ”not much hope” that the missing migrants will be found alive.
If the loss of life is confirmed, it would be one of the worst disasters linked to bids by would-be illegal immigrants to make the hazardous crossing into Europe.
The biggest previous loss of life was of 34 North African migrants drowned in the Bay of Cadiz in southern Spain.
The survivors who arrived on Friday in Tenerife, including a 15-year-old boy, were ”strongly affected psychologically” after trying in vain to save friends and family members, a Red Cross official told Agence France-Presse.
Immigration Minister Consuelo Rumi told national radio that Spain, one of the main gateways to Europe for illegal immigrants, was facing a ”humanitarian disaster”.
She believed the migrants’ voyage began in Guinea-Bissau on the west coast of Africa, adding that reports in the daily El Pais that the survivors spoke English and claimed to have come from Liberia and Ghana should be treated with caution.
The Canary Islands have been a magnet in recent years for mainly sub-Saharan immigrants, being the closest European landfall.
About 31 200 immigrants arrived in the Spanish archipelago last year, more than tripling the previous annual record and overwhelming the island chain’s authorities.
More than 250 would-be immigrants have reached the islands since Sunday with 4 700 arriving since January, despite tighter surveillance of the African coastline in recent months by the EU border patrol agency, Frontex.
The would-be immigrants risk their lives making a hazardous voyage of several hundred kilometres in boats that are rarely sea-worthy.
An unknown number have died in the attempt, with some estimates putting the death toll in the hundreds.
Over the past two years the number of mainly sub-Saharan refugees looking to reach the Canaries has grown exponentially.
Spain and Morocco tightened cooperation in an effort to reduce the number of people trying to cross the Gibraltar Strait dividing Spain from the North African coast. – Sapa-AFP