80 on migrant boat from The Gambia feared dead
Over 80 people, including a baby, are believed to have died after a boat was rescued off the coast of the Canary Islands on September 2nd, reports the BBC.
The vessel, which is thought to have departed from The Gambia 27 days ago, was located 65 nautical miles southwest of the coastal town of Arguineguín, with 44 survivors and five deceased passengers on board.
The route via the Atlantic from West Africa to the Canary Islands is recognised by the International Organisation for Migration as one of the deadliest migrant crossings in the world. Earlier this year, 39 were killed after a boat capsized off the coast of Gambia.
Fernando Clavijo, head of the Canary Islands government, said in a statement on X: “It is intolerable that lives continue to be lost. The Canaries cannot get used to or accept as normal the fact that the Atlantic continues to be a death trap.”
Spanish Maritime Rescue teams have said in a statement that the survivors are men from sub-Saharan Africa, three of whom were airlifted to hospital in critical condition. The rest were transported to Gran Canaria before disembarking early on September 3rd.
Rescuers were forced to abandon the five bodies as 20-knot winds and 2.5m waves made it “impossible” to recover them.
It is believed that the boat left West Africa with 127 occupants on board, although Spanish Maritime Rescue teams are unable to verify how many people were originally on the vessel. Human rights activist and founder of charity Caminando Fronteras Helena Maleno Garzón claims that 83 people have lost their lives.
Thousands of migrants continue to face treacherous weather conditions and long distances to reach Europe from West Africa, with 4,000 people departing from Gambia’s coast between March and June of 2025 alone. Increased border patrolling in northern Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, where many would disembark to Europe via the Mediterranean, have pushed migrants to choose the longer, deadlier route through the Atlantic.
On September 1st, it was reported that Libyan migration authorities had transferred 98 migrants, who had been detained after attempting to cross Libya’s coastline, to a detention centre in Benghazi, where they would prepare for repatriation to their home countries.
Similarly, Algeria and Mauritania’s coast guard forces reportedly intercepted more than 500 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa attempting to reach the Canary Islands in August.
BBC, Maghrebi.org
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