Spanish coastguard rescues three African migrants stowed away on ship's rudder
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The migrants were taken into the port and attended to by health services.
PHOTO: EFE CANARIAS/TWITTER
Follow topic:
MADRID - The Spanish coastguard said it rescued three migrants stowed away on the rudder of a ship that arrived in the Canary Islands from Nigeria.
In a photograph distributed on Twitter by the coastguard on Monday, the three stowaways are shown perched on the rudder of the oil and chemical tanker Althini II.
The Althini II arrived in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria on Monday after an 11-day voyage from Lagos in Nigeria, according to Marine Traffic, a ship-tracking website.
The migrants were taken into the port and attended to by health services, the coastguard said on Twitter.
All three have been hospitalised with moderate dehydration, reported Efe Canarias, a Spanish news agency.
Mr Txema Santana, a journalist and migration adviser to the Canary Islands government, tweeted: “It is not the first and it will not be the last. Stowaways do not always have the same luck.”
The Spanish-owned Canary Islands are a popular gateway for African migrants attempting to reach Europe. Spanish data shows migration by sea to the archipelago jumped 51 per cent in the first five months of the year compared to a year earlier.
In October 2020, four people stowed away on the rudder of an oil tanker from Lagos and were discovered by the police as the vessel came into Las Palmas. They had been hiding for 10 days. REUTERS
