Enlarge image
Rescue of refugees in the Canary Islands (archive image)
Photo: DESIREE MARTIN / AFP
A dead woman was rescued from the sea in Spain.
"The body was in really bad shape," said a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
The corpse had been in the water for "a few days".
The authorities could not say whether the deceased came from North or Sub-Saharan Africa.
The coast guard ship found the body on the way to a boat in distress with 52 people on board, the spokeswoman continued.
On the same day, the emergency services came across three other boats.
A total of 172 migrants were rescued on Tuesday.
Number of refugees increased
According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, a total of 16,827 migrants from Africa reached the Canary Islands by boat in the first ten months of this year.
That is 44 percent more than in the same period last year.
The number of migrants arriving in the Canary Islands has skyrocketed since the end of 2019 after increased patrols off the North African coast had drastically reduced the number of crossings across the Mediterranean.
The shortest sea route from Morocco to the Canary Islands is 100 kilometers long.
The crossing is very dangerous due to strong currents.
Many migrants set sail from far greater distances from the coasts of Western Sahara, Mauritania or Senegal.
ala / AFP
