Ten boats with almost 500 migrants were rescued in the last 24 hours
The Emergency Services have reported that Maritime Rescue has intercepted 10 different boats in the last 24 hours with 495 people on board crossing the Atlantic from West Africa to the Canary Islands.
The latest boat was retrieved 64 kilometres east of Fuerteventura with 53 migrants of sub-Saharan origin on board, including 11 women and 3 children.
The boat was spotted by the Sasemar 101 plane at around 10:10am yesterday morning and the Salvamar Izar rescue boat was dispatched to the coordinates given by the plane.
A spokesman for Maritime Rescue confirmed that all the occupants of the boat were in apparent good health, and arrived at the port of Gran Tarajal in the south of Fuerteventura at 3:00pm local time where they were met by the Red Cross and medical personnel.
Before this boat, another nine were intercepted all heading to Lanzarote, the closest island to the African departure point, with another 442 irregular migrants on board.
So far, the arrival of irregular immigrants by boat to the Canary Islands has increased in August.
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