A seven-year-old girl died tonight when the boat in which she was trying to reach Lanzarote with her mother overturned. This has been confirmed by the Red Cross to this newspaper. According to the survivor’s testimony, the woman had her daughter tied to her body, but when the barge capsized, her scarf came untied.
The Government Delegation in the Canary Islands has not yet confirmed the death, but assures that “all resources are being put into operation to speed up the referral procedure and immediate reviews are being carried out on the most vulnerable people.”
A six-year-old boy who is now in critical condition and a pregnant woman were also traveling in the boat that overturned. The minor was traveling with his mother and had to be rushed to a hospital in Gran Canaria. According to health sources consulted by this newsroom, the occupants of this precarious boat arrived at the port in a state of hypothermia and, in addition, the child also had a blow to the head.
The inflatable was located 115 kilometers from Arrecife by a merchant, who reported that there were people in the water. Salvamento’s Helimer 206 helicopter arrived and was able to rescue the child and seven other adults, including his mother.
In the last few hours, Salvamento Marítimo has rescued a total of 357 people in nine boats in Lanzarote. According to the data provided by the Red Cross, among the survivors there are at least 307 men, 48 women and two children, in the absence of counting the data of the 40 people who have been rescued a few minutes ago on the Canarian migratory route.
The founder of the group Caminando Fronteras, Helena Maleno, has warned that there are still more people at sea. The information available to the group is provided by the relatives of the people who take the Atlantic route. However, they regret that Salvamento Marítimo is not giving them feedback and don’t provide them with specific data to know who is still in the water and who is already safe. “We are missing four boats that for now we cannot confirm. We don’t know if they have been rescued or if they are still in the water,” Maleno detailed.
The death of the girl is added to the 800 deaths that have taken place so far this year on the Canarian route, according to data from the latest monitoring by Caminando Fronteras. Of this figure, almost 90% of the bodies are not recovered and sink forever in the sea.
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