Spanish maritime rescue crews located a boat 65 nautical miles southwest of the Gran Canaria town of Arguineguín on Wednesday after it had drifted in the Atlantic for 27 days.
The vessel, believed to have left The Gambia in early August with 127 occupants, yielded 44 survivors, all men from sub‑Saharan Africa, and five deceased bodies that could not be recovered because of 20‑knot winds and 2.5‑metre waves.
Three of the rescued migrants were airlifted to hospital in critical condition, while the remaining survivors were taken by sea to Gran Canaria and disembarked in the early hours of Thursday.
Human‑rights activist Helena Maleno Garzón, founder of the Spanish charity Caminando Fronteras, said that 83 people had lost their lives on the crossing, a figure echoed by authorities who could not verify the exact number originally aboard.
The incident highlights the peril of the Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands, recognised as one of the world’s deadliest migration pathways.
Fernando Clavijo, head of the Canary Islands government, condemned the loss of life on social media, calling the Atlantic a "death trap" that cannot be accepted as normal.
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