According to a report, three migrants stayed on the rudder blade of an oil tanker for eleven days and thus reached the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain. This emerges from the report of the Spanish sea rescue authority on Twitter.
The ship flying the Maltese flag Alithini II arrived at the port of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria on Monday from Lagos in Nigeria. The three men would have sat on the huge oar blade for the entire journey – a distance of about 5000 kilometers – with the water almost reaching their feet, as can be seen in photos. The authority writes that they received medical treatment upon arrival.
It is not the first time that stowaways have been spotted on such a dangerous part of the ship in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Already in 2020 reported Spanish media about a 14-year-old who also translated from Lagos to Gran Canaria on the rudder blade of a cargo ship – but in 15 days. be in the same year Norwegian media reports according to four Nigerian men also managed the dangerous crossing.
Despite the danger to life, many people, mostly in small boats, dare to cross the open Atlantic from the West African coast to the Canary Islands and thus to the EU. The UN counted nearly 15,000 arrivals through November this year. The UN Organization for Migration IOM counted more than 1,500 dead or missing at sea by October. However, the number of unreported cases is likely to be higher.