In the last few hours, the Maritime Rescue Service has used two of its vessels to rescue 125 people of Maghreb and sub-Saharan origin who were travelling in an inflatable boat, the largest such vessel sighted to date on the Canary Islands route, and has disembarked them, all in good health, in the capital of Lanzarote.
The rescue took place on Wednesday at 10.54 pm in international waters, some 68.5 kilometres north-east of the island, according to the Lanzarote Emergency Services Consortium.
The rescue vessels Acrux and Al Nair set out to assist these people and have disembarked them at the port of Arrecife; among them were four women and 22 minors, according to figures provided to EFE by the Maritime Rescue Service.
Canary Islands route: rubber dinghies carrying more than a hundred people for the first time
This summer, for the first time, inflatable boats carrying more than a hundred people have arrived in the Canary Islands.
Three vessels of this type have been rescued and taken to Lanzarote: one carrying 122 people on 8 July, another carrying 111 people on 20 August, a third carrying 107 on 14 September, and the one rescued last night, which is the most overcrowded of those arriving in the Canary Islands so far.
In the past, the inflatable boats chartered by the organisations involved in people-smuggling in this part of the Atlantic would usually carry 50 or 60 people, although in recent years they have been overloaded with as many as 80 or 90.
The four vessels, each carrying more than a hundred people, which were intercepted this summer had as many people on board as the Mauritanian boats usually carry on the crossings from Nouadhibou or Nouakchott to the Canary Islands.
«125 migrants arrive in Lanzarote in good condition after rescue»
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