Madrid, July 15, (dpa/GNA) – The Spanish sea rescue service has continued its search for up to three refugee boats with possibly more than 300 people on board in the waters, between the west African coast and the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain.
A search plane is on its way and ships in the region, have been alerted to keep a lookout for the small boats, a spokeswoman for the sea rescue service told dpa on Tuesday.
On Monday the Spanish authorities, reported that a search plane had spotted a boat with around 200 people on board. However, according to new information on Tuesday, a sea rescue cruiser was only able to rescue 78 people from a smaller wooden boat about 140 kilometres south-west of Gran Canaria.
Helena Maleno of the Spanish aid organization Caminando Fronteras (Border Crossers), confirmed to dpa that the people rescued on Monday were not those missing from a larger boat, with around 200 people on board.
This boat is said to have left Senegal on June 27 in the direction of the Canary Islands, some 1,700 kilometres away.
There is still no trace of two other boats, each with up to 60 people on board, which had set off from Senegal a few days earlier on the same route towards the Canaries.
In June, 19 boats with refugees from Senegal arrived in the Canary Islands. The route is considered particularly dangerous because of strong currents and high waves.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, 7,278 migrants from Africa have been counted in the Canary Islands from the start of the year until July 2.
According to Caminando Fronteras, at least 778 people have died so far on the Atlantic route. The number of unreported cases is probably higher.
GNA