- A baby girl has been born on board a packed migrant dinghy heading to Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands.
- Medical and government officials said the baby and mother were in good health. A Spanish government spokesperson in the Canary Islands said the two would likely be taken in at a humanitarian center for migrants and then transferred to a reception center for mothers and children on another island.
- According to Spanish migrant charity Walking Borders, 9,757 people died on the Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands in 2024. This route can be particularly dangerous for women.
A baby girl born in a crowded migrant dinghy bound for Spain's Lanzarote island in the Canary Islands is being treated with her mother in hospital and both are in good health, medical and local government officials said Thursday. did.
Dr. Maria Sabarić, emergency coordinator at Lanzarote's Molina Orosa University Hospital, told Reuters that the two were being treated with antibiotics and being monitored by a pediatric team.
“The mother and child are safe,” she said. “They are still in the hospital, but they are doing well.”
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The Spanish coast guard said the ship carrying the pregnant woman left Morocco's Tintin province, about 135 nautical miles southeast of Lanzarote.
After being discharged from hospital, the mother and her infant were taken to a humanitarian center for migrants and then transferred to a reception center for mothers and young children on another island, said Spanish government spokeswoman Cristina Ruiz in the Canary Islands' capital. It is said that there is a high possibility that Las Palmas told Reuters.
The recent arrivals join the thousands of migrants who make the perilous and deadly voyage from the west African coast to the Canary Islands every year.
Migrants arrive in a small boat at the port of La Restinga on El Hierro, Canary Islands, on February 4, 2024. Spanish migrant charity Walking Borders said 9,757 people died on the Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands in 2024. (European Press, via AP)
The rescue operation went smoothly thanks to good weather, Domingo Trujillo, a captain with the Spanish coast guard who rescued the migrants (60 people, including 14 women and four children), told Spanish news agency EFE. .
“The baby was crying. That showed us that the baby was alive and there was no problem, so we asked the woman for permission to undress the baby and clean it,” he said. “The umbilical cord had already been cut by one of the passengers. The only thing we did was check on the child, give it to the mother, and wrap it for the trip.”
Overnight, Canary Island rescue teams recovered two more boats, with a total of 144 people on board.
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According to Spanish migration charity Walking Borders, 9,757 people died on the Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands in 2024. The route from Morocco and Western Sahara is most commonly used by women who routinely suffer sexual violence, discrimination, racism, and deportation. In transit.
Trujillo said the crew was exhausted but proud of their work.
“Almost every night, we leave at dawn and arrive late,” he said. “This case is very positive because it was a case of a newborn baby, but we know that in all the service we do, even if we are tired, we are helping people who are suffering. I know.”
