The rise in the humanitarian emergency on the Canary Islands migratory route, which on Saturday led to the rescue of 469 people on the islands, has led to 652 people being brought to safety in the last few hours in nine boats that during the night and morning of this Sunday they reached Lanzarote, El Hierro, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
This figure marks the record for arrivals in a single day in 2023, which had already been surpassed this week with the arrival of 634 people in 24 hours last Monday.
In Lanzarote, Salvamento Marítimo has carried out four new rescue and landing operations on the island of people who were going in inflatable boats, while in El Hierro two new canoes have been helped, with a total of five this weekend, and in Gran Canaria others occupied by 113 people the first 63 people the second, according to sources from Maritime Rescue, the Red Cross and the Lanzarote Emergency Consortium.
At 10:33 p.m., Guardamar Talía de Salvamento Marítimo assisted a dinghy carrying 42 people (32 men, 8 women and two minors), of North African and sub-Saharan origin, and another with 48 occupants (39 men, 8 women and a minor), all sub-Saharan in this case, when they were sailing 46.3 kilometers east of Lanzarote, the island where they were disembarked at 02:15 am in apparent good health.
At 1:26 a.m., the Guardamar Polyhymnia rescued another 44 people (37 men, 5 women and two minors, one of them a baby) of sub-Saharan origin who were traveling in another inflatable boat the same distance east of the coast of the capital of Lanzarote. , where they landed at 02:45 hours.
Furthermore, on this same island the Salvamar Al Nair disembarked around 7:00 a.m. this Sunday another 33 people who were on a fourth barge, in this case a boat. The Lanzarote Temporary Assistance Center for Foreigners, in the capital of this island, houses 268 people.
In Gran Canaria, Salvamar Macondo has rescued in the last few hours 113 people of sub-Saharan origin (109 men and 4 women) who were in a canoe, whom it has disembarked at the Arguineguín dock.
For its part, Salvamar Adhara has escorted a canoe that has arrived by its own means to the coast of El Hierro, in La Estaca, and in which 99 migrants were traveling, of which one needed to be transferred to a hospital.
To that same island, the westernmost of the archipelago, the BAM Rayo patrol boat of the Spanish Navy escorted, at around 00:30 hours, a fifth cayuco that was 24 kilometers from La Restinga and in which 96 migrants were coming. This canoe had already been monitored by another Navy ship, the Tornado, which was doing routine maneuvers south of the Canary Islands.
The Salvamar Adhara came to meet them, mobilized by the Tenerife Maritime Rescue Center, which, minutes after 2:00 a.m., sighted the boat and escorted it to the Port of La Restinga, where around 5:00 a.m. the disembarkation of the boats was completed. its occupants.
In addition, at 8:00 a.m., the Civil Guard informed the Maritime Rescue Center in Tenerife of the detection of a radar echo from a possible canoe that was sailing some 18 kilometers south of Punta Rasca.
Once the Salvamar Alpheratz was mobilized, it confirmed around 9:00 a.m. that it had sighted a cayuco and proceeded to escort it to the port of Los Cristianos, where it has disembarked 114 people, including 12 women and 13 minors around 10:00 a.m. Of them, a woman and three minors required transfer to the Hospital due to mild symptoms.
In addition, after 9:30 a.m., the Civil Guard reported to the Maritime Rescue Center in Las Palmas another radar echo from a possible cayuco some 20 kilometers south of Maspalomas, in Gran Canaria.
Once Salvamar Macondo was mobilized, at around 10:30 it reported that it had sighted a canoe and proceeded to rescue the 63 migrants who were on board, all sub-Saharan and men. They are expected to disembark in the port of Arguineguín.
