Emergency services in the Spanish Canary Islands said they saved at least 350 migrants from five different vessels in the Spanish Atlantic Ocean archipelago over the last 24 hours. 53 migrants were saved near the island of Lanzarote and another 61 near the island of Gran Canaria.
Another boat was intercepted by the Spanish coastguard on Thursday, with 54 migrants near Lanzarote. People on two more boats were rescued on Thursday afternoon. The incident comes at the heels of a dinghy carrying migrants sinking about 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Gran Canaria.
Spain's coast guard said a Moroccan patrol boat rescued 24 people. It however said that it did not know how many people were missing. Helena Maleno, founder of the Spanish non-profit group Walking Borders – which monitors migrant boats and tries to help them, said 39 people had died. Maleno added the migrants had waited for over 12 hours for assistance. Maleno told CNN there has been a noticeable increase in recent weeks of attempted migrant crossings to the Canaries. Reportedly, on Thursday, Spanish government maritime services rescued 227 more migrants from four boats off Lanzarote and Gran Canary Islands.
