Senegal Boat Carrying 41 Migrants Reaches Canary Isles

A boat carrying 41 migrants that set off from Senegal landed in Spain's Canary Islands, the emergency services said Thursday as rescuers continued searching for three other missing boats from Senegal.

"A boat carrying 41 migrants reached... (a beach on) Tenerife by its own means," the emergency services said, indicating it landed on Thursday afternoon and three of the migrants were taken to hospital for light injuries.

According to the Red Cross, whose staff interviewed the migrants, the boat left the coast of Senegal eight days earlier.

Among their number was "at least one minor", a spokesman told AFP, without specifying the nationalities of the rescued migrants.

Senegal lies about 1,500 kilometres (about 1,000 miles) south of the Spanish islands.

The boat landed as Spain's coastguard continued searching for three migrant boats carrying some 300 migrants reported lost by Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish NGO that helps migrant vessels in distress.

Spain's Salvamento Maritimo coastguard said a plane deployed Thursday had found nothing, with a spokeswoman saying rescuers had contacted ships in the area for help and were also in touch with the Senegalese authorities.

Caminando Fronteras has said the biggest boat left the southern fishing town of Kafountine on June 27 carrying some 200 people, "among them many minors".

The other two, one carrying 50-60 people and the other 65 people, left Mbour some 75 kilometres (50 miles) south of the capital Dakar.

The Spanish islands have long been a draw for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, with many boats setting off from the coastline of Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal.

But the Atlantic route is particularly dangerous due to the strong currents, with migrants travelling in overloaded wooden boats known as pirogues that are often unseaworthy, and without enough drinking water.

Atlantic crossings began surging in late 2019 after increased patrols along Europe's southern coast dramatically reduced Mediterranean crossings.

In the first six months of 2023, 7,213 migrants reached the Canary Islands by boat, interior ministry figures show.