More than 80 migrants, including a baby, are feared to have died after their overcrowded boat was found drifting off Gran Canaria, having set sail from Gambia roughly 27 days earlier. Spanish coastguards launched a rescue operation in rough seas after receiving an alert, finding only 45 survivors and five bodies still aboard from an estimated 128 people who had set off on the vessel, highlighting the extreme dangers of the Atlantic migration route to the Canary Islands.

The boat was located around 75 miles south of Gran Canaria after the alarm was raised, with the rescue beginning shortly after midnight; three survivors were airlifted to hospital, while the rest were brought to Arguineguin Port. Helena Maleno Garzon of the migrant rights group Caminando Fronteras put the death toll at 83, including three women and a baby. The Canary Islands route is considered by some experts to be deadlier than the Mediterranean crossing to Italy, with migrant arrivals peaking at nearly 47,000 in 2024; monitoring groups have recorded thousands of deaths on the route since 2014, though these figures are believed to significantly undercount the true toll.