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At least seven people, all of them women and girls, have died after a migrant boat capsized just five metres from the dock at La Restinga, on the Spanish Canary Island of El Hierro.

 

The victims include three girls aged between 4 and 16. A young girl remains in serious condition after being pulled from the water and rushed to hospital.

 

The wooden ‘cayuco’ or small boat, which was carrying around 160 migrants, overturned this Wednesday morning, May 28, as passengers prepared to disembark onto a rescue boat. Rescue workers had nearly completed the operation when the boat suddenly capsized, plunging many of its exhausted occupants into the sea.

 

Initial reports also suggested a baby was missing at sea, but the Guardia Civil later confirmed that the child in question was a 5-year-old girl who could not be revived after being recovered from the water.

 

Just this week, Spain put into effect radical new immigration rules that will regularise the status of 300,000 migrants in Spain.

 

Speaking at the scene of the tragedy today, government delegate Anselmo Pestana said the vessel was filled with migrants who had endured an extremely long and difficult journey.

 

“They must have arrived in a very exhausted state,” he explained, adding that the moment of disembarkation is the most dangerous. “It seems that they got up and the boat capsized, a tragic moment because... many of them arrive in a state of stiffness and tremendous fatigue, which also makes it very difficult when they fall into the water.”

 

Emergency teams, including maritime rescue services and health personnel, acted swiftly, but the conditions and physical state of those on board made rescue efforts especially challenging.

 

The President of the Canary Islands Government, Fernando Clavijo, called the incident “the hardest face” of irregular migration from Africa to Spain and criticised the lack of understanding from officials in mainland offices.

 

“You have to be there, you have to see the babies, you have to see how they take a girl away in an ambulance with a tube in her throat to really understand the drama unfolding 80 kilometres from the Canary Islands,” he said.

 

Along with the Vice-President of the Canary Islands Manuel Domínguez, President Clavijo were in El Hierro just this Tuesday, May 27, and communicated to representatives of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs the demands of the Islands to deal with its migration challenge.

 

In particular, the regional government is calling for differentiated treatment for unaccompanied migrant minors in the application of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum from the summer of 2026.

 

Thousands of migrants attempt to reach Spanish territory via the Atlantic route, one of the deadliest migratory paths into Europe. They often make the perilous crossing in overcrowded and often unseaworthy boats provided by unscrupulous criminal gangs who charge extortionate fees to transport people illegally into Europe, many departing from West Africa and heading towards the Canary Islands.

 

Image: Salvamento Marítimo