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The pirogue - a type of dugout canoe - was sighted on Monday
evening at around 8 p.m. (2000 GMT) a merchant vessel which
alerted authorities on the island of Gran Canaria.
Rescue services deployed two helicopters to evacuate the injured
and a ship to tow the pirogue to the Gran Canaria port of
Arguineguin, 76 nautical miles (140 km) to the north, where they
were met by Red Cross staff and police.
The 34 survivors comprised 27 men and seven women of sub-Saharan
African origin, a spokesperson for the rescue service told
Reuters, without giving details of where the boat had started
its voyage.
The EU border agency Frontex says the Atlantic route to the
Canary Islands is the busiest route for irregular migration from
West Africa into the European Union.
The number of migrants boarding boats to attempt the crossing to
the Canary Islands has risen more than six-fold so far this year
from the same period of 2023, Spanish Interior Ministry data
showed.
A total of 11,932 irregular migrants reached the Atlantic Ocean
archipelago between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29, compared with the 1,865
who arrived in the same period in 2023, the ministry said.
Sea conditions around the Canary Islands have been challenging
for navigation in the past week, with state weather agency AEMET
issuing several alerts over ocean swells.
(Reporting by Borja Suarez and David Latona; Editing by Emma
Pinedo and Ros Russell)
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