Five people were found dead on a boat adrift south of Spain's Canary Islands in the Atlantic, the Spanish maritime rescue service said on Thursday (June 20).

A cargo ship named Philipp Oldendorff sighted the fishing boat on Wednesday around 800 kilometers south of the island of Tenerife and provided first assistance to the migrants, reported news agency Reuters. Meanwhile, a cruise ship named Insignia was rerouted to the area and picked up the survivors and three dead people, Spain's maritime rescue service Salvamento Marítimo said on X Thursday morning.

This left "the [migrant boat] adrift with 2 dead persons (provisional data to be confirmed by the vessel)," the rescue service wrote.

According to Reuters, bad weather prevented the Insignia crew from taking the other two bodies on board, but they left a locating device to facilitate the search by Salvamento Marítimo. On Thursday, a Salvamento Marítimo vessel was reportedly en route from the Canary Islands to meet the Insignia and then locate the shipwreck.

The Insignia is a small luxury cruise ship currently undertaking a 180-day trip around the world that started in January, Reuters reported.

"We can confirm that the Insignia rescued 68 people from a vessel in distress between Cape Verde and Tenerife, brought them onboard for medical assistance and provided food, drinks, clothing and a safe place to rest," said a spokesperson for Insignia owner Oceania Cruises, which is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

It is unusual for cruise ships to engage in rescue activities involving migrants on the so-called Atlantic route, according to AP. However, the boat carrying the migrants "was a long way out and they could be in danger," AP reported citing a maritime rescue's spokesperson.

Read more: 'Each boat is in danger' – the rescue of migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands

'The boat had been at sea for 20 days"

An American citizen traveling on the cruise ship told AP passengers were not told about the dead. "They did say the boat had been at sea for 20 days," he said. "We were diverted in the evening and it took us two hours to reach them.

"The area has been closed off to passengers. They [the rescuees] had to remove their clothes and put on jumpsuits. Then they asked passengers if they had shoes and clothes they could donate, particularly for men. Their announcement said 62 were men, with the rest women and children," he added.

The Insignia is expected to arrive on Friday at the port of Santa Cruz on Tenerife, one of the seven main islands that make up the Spanish island group, AP reported citing information provided by Salvamento Marítimo.

Continued increase in arrivals

Migrant landings recorded on the Canary Islands have recently increased, with some 1,800 arrivals in the first 15 days of this month, according to data released by the Spanish interior ministry on Monday, June 17.

With the latest arrivals, the overall number of migrants who reached the Spanish archipelago in the Atlantic from the beginning of 2024 rose to nearly 19,000, or roughly eight out of ten people who entered Spain irregularly over the same period.

Last year, the island group saw a record-breaking number of arrivals of almost 40,000, a significant increase over 2022.

Earlier this month, one of the estimated 600 migrants who arrived on the Canaries between June 5 and 6 died on the island of El Hierro.

The crossing to the Canary Islands from (north)western Africa is one of the most dangerous migration routes worldwide. According to the UN migration agency IOM, 150 people are known to have died or gone missing so far this year trying to reach the Canary Islands by boat, although the real number is believed to be much higher. Spanish charity 'Caminando Fronteras' (Walking Borders) estimates the figure for between January and May to be nearly 5,000.

Also read: Spain: Police break up gang suspected of distributing fake work permits to migrants

with Reuters, AP