Maritime Rescue rescued 26,521 immigrants in 2023, which represents 37% more people rescued compared to the previous year, in which the institution dependent on the Ministry of Transport saved 19,373 people, as reported this Friday through a statement. .
The ships and aircraft of this service have participated in the search for 1,239 precarious vessels (pateras and cayucos).
This same Thursday, Sasemar has rescued three canoes with 418 people in waters near the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, which increases the pressure on the islands that have received, in January alone, 7,270 immigrants in 110 boats, according to the latest data of the Ministry of the Interior, which multiplies by almost 12 the arrivals of the same month a year ago.
Sasemar's statement indicates that last year it provided assistance to 61,824 people (161 per day), of which less than half were migrants trying to reach the Spanish coast.
The bulk of the actions were for incidents in recreational boating.
Rescue's balance indicates that it participated in the rescue of the bulk of immigrants arriving in Spain by sea in 2023 (35,812).
Photo provided by Salvamento Marítimo of the rescue of a canoe full of people during 2023, near the Canary Islands, by the Guardamar 'Caliope'.
The data show that the migratory route from Mauritania to the Canary Islands has been consolidated more strongly than the Mediterranean one.
Maritime Rescue has detailed that last year it coordinated the search for 300 precarious boats and rescued 3,093 people (16% more than the previous year) in the maritime search and rescue areas that are the responsibility of its centers located in Andalusia.
The rest arrived at the islands, including the 1,193 that arrived in the Balearic Islands.
The increase, therefore, is due to the resurgence of the African route last year, as demonstrated by the fact that in 2022 a total of 14,170 people were rescued by one of the 87 Sasemar maritime and air units near the Canary Islands ( 22% less compared to the previous year) in 475 cayucos.
Throughout last year, 23,537 people arrived in the Canary Islands by sea in 384 barges, compared to the 294 boats that arrived the previous year with 13,122 migrants.
The increase was 79% from one year to the next.
In the same period of 2023, 12,098 people arrived by sea to the Peninsula or the Balearic Islands, that is, almost half of those who arrived in the Canary Islands.
The Guardamar Caliope, in another rescue in the Canary Islands.
If the pace of January continues, a month in which the arrival of boats traditionally decreased due to the poor state of the sea, 2024 will break all known records.
Not only have 7,270 people arrived in the first month of this year (1,184.5% more in just one year), but so far this Friday alone, three large boats have entered with a total of 418 migrants of sub-Saharan origin, of which 40 are minors.
The last one to arrive at the moment is one that Salvamento Marítimo has rescued with 41 men of sub-Saharan origin, who were sighted by the passenger ship
Volcán de Taburiente
4.5 miles west of Puerto Colón.
Immediately, the Salvamar
Alpheratz
was mobilized , which rescued the migrants and towed the cayuco to the port of Los Cristianos, where they all disembarked in apparent good health.