At least 80 people, including a baby, have been found dead on a boat that had been adrift for 26 days off Spain’s Canary Islands.
Spain’s news agency EFE Noticias reported that the victims were discovered in a small vessel off the islands, which lie off the coast of northwest Africa.
The Civil Guard told Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras that the boat had likely travelled from Gambia, according to inscriptions on the vessel’s hull.
The boat, which was rescued on Thursday morning, was carrying around 128 people. Only 45 survivors and five bodies were found on board, EFE reported.
Survivors on the boat, which was brought to the port of Arguineguin in Gran Canaria, reportedly told the Red Cross they had left for the Canary Islands with more than 100 people on board.
It comes one day after the Moroccan navy intercepted 201 migrants attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands after departing from Western Sahara. The boat was intercepted 185 kilometres (115 miles) southwest of Dakhla, according to the Moroccan general staff, EFE.
The Independent has contacted the Maritime Rescue, Guardia Civil, and Red Cross for further comment.
The western Africa to Canary Islands migrant route has become one of the world’s most deadly in recent years, with lives lost rising by 480 per cent between 2019 and 2025 (202 to 1,172), according to the Migration’s Missing Migrant’s Project.
“We’re seeing that, because the counter-smuggling enforcement on a lot of the West and North African departure countries is getting stricter, people are leaving from as far south as the Gambia, an overseas journey of weeks, which is crazy when it’s often a fishing boat,” a spokesperson for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which runs the MMP, previously told The Independent.
In 2026, 349 people have died so far, according to MMP figures. This is not believed to include the 80 who have reportedly been found dead near the Canary Islands.
The route is by far the deadliest migration route from Africa, MMP figures show.