Spain's maritime rescue service has rescued 245 people who were aboard three inflatable boats in waters near the Canary Island of Lanzarote. Despite fewer arrivals to the Canaries this year, the death toll has been increasing.
Salvamento Maritimo, the Spanish maritime rescue service, on Thursday (August 20) rescued a total of 245 people who were aboard three inflatable boats in waters near the Canary Island of Lanzarote.
The figure is provisional, according to Spanish news agency EFE, citing a spokeswoman for the rescue service. Lanzarote is located in the Spanish archipelago known as the Canary Islands, situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa.
At the time of reporting, there was no data available for those 245 people broken down by gender, nor about how many of them may be minors or their nationalities, according to sources consulted by EFE.
The local news portal Canarias7 reported on Friday morning (August 21) that according to sources close to the matter, all three boats had departed from the Moroccan coast. Additionally, two more boats were reportedly prepared to set off for the Canary Islands. However, Moroccan authorities received information and intervened before the vessels could leave.
Three boats
On Thursday morning, a Salvamento Maritimo vessel arrived at the port of Arrecife -- the capital of Lanzarote -- carrying 111 people rescued from an inflatable boat that had been spotted about 114 kilometers from Arrecife.
The rescue was reportedly preceded by two others: the 45 people from the first of the three rescues arrived at Arrecife port early Thursday morning, after Salvamento Maritimo received a report that a merchant ship had spotted an inflatable boat north of Lanzarote.
According to EFE citing the Canary Islands Regional Government's Emergency Services, these individuals were generally in good health.
Later on Thursday, 89 people who had been rescued from another makeshift vessel in waters near Lanzarote disembarked at the same port, with three of them reportedly taken to a hospital due to various medical conditions.
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Deadlier crossing despite fewer arrivals
As care for these migrants is ongoing, detailed information about their health status after disembarkation has not yet been provided, reported EFE.
According to the agency, these three boats are the first vessels carrying irregular migrants to get close to the Canary Islands' shores since August 4, when a makeshift boat -- known in this region as a cayuco -- carrying more than 130 people arrived in waters near the island of El Hierro.
The last groups of migrants to arrive on Lanzarote were the around 120 people who were rescued from an overcrowded dinghy on July 8 and another group that arrived on their own.
Data from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior show that from January through August 15 of this year, a total of 14,411 people arrived in Spain by sea, a drop of 29 percent compared to the same period in 2025. In the case of the Canary Islands alone, however, this decrease doubles to 60 percent, as 4,808 people arrived in the Atlantic archipelago so far this year.
Despite the drop in the number of arrivals, the Atlantic route from western and northwestern Africa to the Canaries has become more dangerous, with the death toll rising to 4.5 percent this year (through July 9). One reason is that boat journeys to the Canaries are starting further south: "While people used to leave from Morocco or Mauritania, they now start in The Gambia. These are extremely long journeys of more than two weeks, which increases lethality," a spokeswoman for the UN migration agency told InfoMigrants last month.
with EFE