More than 80 people, including women, mothers, and a baby, are feared to have died aboard a migrant vessel that spent nearly a month adrift in the Atlantic Ocean before being rescued off the coast of Gran Canaria, one of Spain's Canary Islands. Spanish Maritime Rescue services located the boat on Wednesday, some 65 nautical miles southwest of the coastal town of Arguineguín, finding 44 survivors and five bodies on board. Three survivors were airlifted to hospital in critical condition, while the remainder were taken by sea to Gran Canaria and handed over to the Red Cross in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The vessel is believed to have departed The Gambia, a small West African nation roughly 1,600 kilometres from the Canary Islands, in early August with approximately 127 to 128 people on board. Survivors told rescuers the journey had lasted 27 days — an ordeal during which they ran out of food and drinking water, with some reportedly falling ill after consuming seawater. Helena Maleno Garzón, founder of the Spanish human rights organisation Caminando Fronteras, said 83 people had lost their lives. It is believed many bodies were thrown overboard during the crossing. Rough conditions at the time of the rescue — with 20-knot winds and waves of up to 2.5 metres — prevented crews from recovering the five bodies still on board.

A Spanish human rights organisation has said that authorities were alerted about the boat's departure last month, raising questions about the response to the distress. Fernando Clavijo, head of the Canary Islands regional government, condemned the loss of life in stark terms, writing on social media: "It is intolerable that lives continue to be lost. The Canaries cannot get used to or accept as normal the fact that the Atlantic continues to be a death trap."

The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is considered one of the world's deadliest migration corridors. Migrants undertake the perilous journey seeking to reach Spanish — and by extension European — territory, braving rough seas, powerful currents, and vast open-ocean distances. According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 1,214 people died on this route in 2023 alone, with the true toll believed to be significantly higher. Tragedies of this scale have intensified calls for greater search-and-rescue capacity and broader political action on migration across the region.