Maritime Rescue rescues a canoe with four bodies on board near El Hierro

On Tuesday night, Maritime Rescue rescued a canoe that was sailing towards the Canary Island of El Hierro and in which four bodies were found, in addition to another 64 people of sub-Saharan origin.

Among the occupants were 53 men, two women, eight children and a baby about three months old.

A total of 21 people have needed immediate assistance at the La Restinga dock itself (southern end of the island) and 13 of them had to be hospitalized due to their poor health.

Two more were transferred by helicopter to Tenerife due to the severity of their diagnosis.

They presented serious symptoms of dehydration, perforation of viscera and edema, a consequence of a journey of more than nine days on the high seas, according to health sources.

The Civil Guard alerted at 8:48 p.m. on Tuesday, Canary Islands time, of the sighting of a canoe about eight nautical miles (more than 14 kilometers) south of El Hierro.

Salvamento then mobilized the

Salvamar Adhara

, which located the boat and accompanied it to port.

The boat would have left Nouakchott, in Mauritania, the origin of most of the canoes that are arriving to the islands.

“They arrived quite destroyed.

It has been one of the strongest rescues,” says Indira Carballo, one of the volunteers who assisted them.

“We had to get at least 30 people off the bus in wheelchairs.

They lay down on the stretchers and began to scream in pain.

“It is one of the worst cayucos I have ever seen,” she laments.

Since the summer, the island, the least populated of the entire archipelago, has become the main European destination for boats carrying migrants and refugees.

So far this year, it has received more than 6,500 people, more than Italy and even Greece, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as of February 26.

Between January 1 and February 29, 11,932 people arrived at the islands by sea, 539% more than a year ago, according to the balance prepared by the Ministry of the Interior.

This figure represents 85% of the total arrivals from all of Spain.

The arrival of vessels has grown by 332% year-on-year in these two months, up to 181.

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