Two survivors were taken to hospitals for different pathologies
This Wednesday, the Canary Islands Immigration Route was responsible for the first two fatalities this year, including a minor, on the day that 73 immigrants also arrived on the coast of Ibiza and Formentera aboard three boats.
According to information gathered by EFE from the emergency services, the first two small boats known to have reached the coast of the Canary Islands on the first day of the year were carrying 141 people, including the two deceased, who were traveling in a precarious boat that arrived alone at Las Galletas, in the south of Tenerife.
Two survivors were taken to hospitals for different pathologies.
Hours later, a maritime rescue vessel, the Salvamar Acrux, escorted a canoe with 70 people, 11 of them women, to the port of La Restinga (El Hierro).
At around 3:28 pm, the Civil Guard detected on the radar of the Integrated External Surveillance System (SIVE) a possible presence of a canoe six kilometers south of La Restinga. The Tenerife maritime rescue center mobilized the Salvamar boat Acrux and the Red Cross boat Mike02.
The rescue vessel performed a maneuver to approach the canoe and escorted it to the port.
The last precarious boats to reach the coasts of the Canary Islands were two in Gran Canaria, on December 30, with 150 people on board, one of which was rescued 20 kilometers out to sea.
The Canary Islands set a new record for arrivals in 2024, surpassing the 46,000 irregular arrivals of people by sea recorded in 2023. In the last week of the year alone, 1,933 migrants arrived, including one deceased, on board 34 boats.
Meanwhile, 73 immigrants reached the coast of Ibiza and Formentera today aboard three boats, local authorities reported.
At 12:15 p.m., the Sant Josep de sa Talaia Civil Guard and local police intercepted 20 people of sub-Saharan origin and one of Maghrebi origin, apparently in good health, on a boat on La Xanga beach, on the island of Ibiza.
The second boat of the day, with 21 occupants of North African origin, was located at 2:00 pm in the Pilar de la Mola area, in Formentera.
Another boat, with another 31 people of North African origin, was intercepted by the Formentera authorities in the Pilar de la Mola area.
During 2024, at least 5,924 immigrants arrived in the Balearic archipelago on board 354 boats, according to the EFE count, while in the previous year 128 boats were recorded on the islands with a total of 2,278 immigrants.
