Baby born during sea crossing to Canary Islands rescued

The photo released Wednesday by the Spanish Maritime Rescue Service shows the rescue of the baby and other occupants who made a perilous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to reach Spain's Canary Islands.

The newborn had just been born at sea, his tiny naked body resting on belongings in a rubber dinghy filled with African migrants wearing winter jackets.

As most Spaniards celebrated Epiphany on Monday, the crew of the Guardamar Talía lifeboat joined people adrift in a small rubber dinghy. It carried the newborn, the mother and other passengers who were risking their lives to reach Europe.

The photo taken from above shows the baby and his presumed mother with several other men and women crammed into the boat, so tightly packed that some are straddling the sides.

The rescue ship's captain, Domingo Trujillo, had already led a rescue operation in 2020, which included the safe care of a baby born during the voyage, the rescue service said.

More than 61,000 people arrived irregularly by sea in Spain last year, according to the Interior Ministry. Some 46,000 of them landed in the Canary Islands, 95 kilometres from Morocco. Among them were several thousand unaccompanied minors.

The International Organization for Migration attributes at least 5,000 deaths to the migration route since it began tracking statistics in 2014. But Spanish migrant rights organization Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) says the real death toll is much higher, with more than 10,000 people dying or disappearing attempting the route last year alone.