MADRID: Four women and three girls drowned on Wednesday after migrants getting ready to disembark their overcrowded boat in Spain's Canary Islands accidentally capsized the vessel, emergency services said, the latest tragedy on the perilous route.
Emergency services in the Atlantic archipelago said rescuers supported by a helicopter were working to save people in the port of La Restinga on the island of El Hierro.
The mayor of the El Pinar municipality north of La Restinga, Juan Miguel Padron, told local television "150 to 145 people" were on the boat.
Spanish public broadcaster RTVE aired footage of rescuers throwing lifebuoys to people clinging onto an overturned boat and treading water off El Hierro.
Emergency services initially confirmed on X "the death of two women after the capsizing of a vessel" in La Restinga and later said "health services confirm another two dead women".
The rescuers then reported the death of two girls aged five and another aged 16, which meant the incident "has resulted in seven people dead".
A three-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl almost drowned and were transported by helicopter to a hospital in Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, the emergency services added on X.
Four other minors with breathing difficulties were being taken to hospital on El Hierro, they said.
Spain's maritime rescue service told AFP in a statement that a rescue ship had found the boat in the morning and accompanied it to La Restinga.
"During the disembarkation, some of the people travelling on the boat crowded on one of the sides, which caused it to tilt and capsize," the service said.
"The transfer of people is the most delicate moment of the operation and, with the vessels being overloaded and with precarious security conditions, the difficulty increases notably."
Question of humanity
Spain takes in each year tens of thousands of Europe-bound migrants who arrive in the Canary Islands from west Africa -- with Mali, Senegal and Morocco the most common nationalities.
Strong ocean currents and ramshackle vessels make the long crossing dangerous.
According to the NGO Caminando Fronteras, at least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea from January 1 to December 5, 2024.
Local authorities have consistently warned of unsustainable pressure on their resources and complained about a lack of solidarity from the rest of the country.
"We ask for decisive action from the European Union," the Canary Islands' regional leader Fernando Clavijo told journalists in La Restinga.
"This is unfortunately what we experience... those who are very far away in offices are incapable of understanding it."
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X that the deaths "should move us all. Lives lost in a desperate attempt to find a better future. We must rise to the occasion. It's a question of humanity," he added.
Almost 47,000 irregular arrivals reached the archipelago in 2024, breaking the annual record for the second year running, as tighter controls in the Mediterranean pushed migrants to attempt the Atlantic route.
But numbers are down so far this year, dropping 34.4 percent between January 1 and May 15 compared with the same period in 2024, according to the latest interior ministry figures.