Spain coast guard rescues 86 people during search for missing migrant boat

The Spanish coast guard has rescued 86 people from a migrant boat off the coast of the Canary Islands.

At first, rescuers thought they had found one of three boats that have been missing since they left Senegal more than two weeks ago.

But the coast guard now says this boat is a different vessel that they did not know about, according to migrant aid group, Walking Borders.

It means there are still more than 300 people missing at sea, on three boats.

The fourth vessel was spotted by a search plane on Monday afternoon, with maritime rescuers initially reporting that they could see 200 people on board.

The boat was found 70 nautical miles (130km) south-west of the Canary Islands. It was carrying people from sub-Saharan Africa, however where it departed from was unclear, a coast guard spokesperson told Reuters news agency.

Those rescued include 80 men and six women, and with the assistance of a container ship, the boat was taken towards Gran Canaria island.

Meanwhile, the search continues for the three missing vessels - the largest of which had an estimated 200 people on board, including many children.

It is thought to have left Senegal more than two weeks ago, on 27 June, heading for the Canary Islands, Walking Borders said.

The boat sailed from Kafountine, a coastal town that is roughly 1,700km (1,056 miles) from Tenerife.

The other two boats are slightly smaller and left four days earlier. One has about 65 people on board and the other up to 60.

This comes just weeks after an overcrowded trawler sank off the Greek coast, in one of the worst Mediterranean migrant shipwrecks.

At least 78 people were confirmed drowned, but the UN reported that up to 500 were still missing.

The voyage from West Africa to the Canary Islands is among the most dangerous routes for migrants. They usually sail in dugout fishing boats that are easily tossed by powerful Atlantic currents.

Last year at least 559 people died at sea attempting to reach the Spanish islands, the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says. The death toll for 2021 was 1,126.

However, the IOM says information about the number of departures from West Africa is scarce and shipwrecks are often not reported.

It adds that the migrants are often from Morocco, Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, or are of other sub-Saharan origins.

According to Spain's interior ministry, 15,682 people arrived in the Canary Islands without permission in 2022, a drop of more than 30% compared with 2021.

"Despite the year-to-year decrease, flows along this dangerous route since 2020 remain high compared to prior years," the IOM says.