Five killed, dozens more feared dead in boat adrift off Canary Islands

What the report says

Spanish maritime rescue authorities said five bodies were recovered from a migrant boat found drifting about 120km south of Gran Canaria, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, after a rescue operation on Wednesday evening. Salvamento Maritimo reported that 44 men were taken from the vessel, with three in critical condition evacuated by helicopter and the rest assisted at the port of Arguineguin by the Red Cross. Officials said adverse weather initially delayed the recovery of the bodies.

According to Al Jazeera’s report, the men on board were from Mali or Senegal, and some were minors. The rescue service said it could not confirm a much higher death toll suggested by the migrant aid group Caminando Fronteras, which said on social media that 83 people, including women and a baby girl, may have died on a boat that left The Gambia 27 days earlier. The NGO said its estimates are based on family testimony and records of rescues, and its figures are often higher than official counts.

The case highlights the continuing risks of the Atlantic migration route to the Canary Islands, a major entry point into Europe for people fleeing poverty, conflict and persecution. Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo used the incident to call for a stronger state migration policy, saying the archipelago cannot normalize repeated loss of life at sea. Separate Spanish interior ministry data cited in the report show arrivals to the islands have fallen this year compared with 2024, even as the route remains one of the deadliest.