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The
rescue service said it was unaware of any drownings as reported
by a rights group.
Helena Maleno, founder of the Walking Borders migration
monitoring group, said 18 people had died trying to make the
perilous crossing to the island of Lanzarote from Africa.
Reuters could not confirm that figure independently.
The rescue service said on its Twitter account 319 migrants were
rescued off six boats, including one carrying as many as 120
people, and were taken to Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.
Reuters footage showed dozens of people wrapped in red blankets
arriving before dawn at the port of Arguineguin on a rescue boat
and being helped off it to the pier by masked emergency workers
in protective suits.
Ten people, including a pregnant woman and a baby, were sent to
health centres, but none of them were in danger.
The islands off the coast of West Africa have become the main
destination for migrants trying to reach Spain, with a much
smaller share trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the
Spanish mainland.
A total of 22,316 migrants arrived in the Canaries illegally in
2021, compared with 23,271 the previous year. Last year was one
of the busiest for such crossings in the past decade, according
to interior ministry data.
Walking Borders said more than 4,400 migrants, including at
least 205 children, were lost at sea trying to reach Spain in
2021, more than double the figure from 2020 and the most since
the group began counting in 2018.
(Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo and Miguel Gutierrez in
Madrid; writing by Emma Pinedo; editing by Andrei Khalip and
Mark Heinrich)
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