Seventeen migrants reported dead after boat rescue off Mallorca

Mallorca, Spain. Seventeen migrants were reported to have died while attempting to reach Spain’s Balearic Islands after 15 days at sea, authorities said on Tuesday, citing two survivors rescued from a boat southwest of Mallorca.

The survivors, both from North African countries, were hospitalised with signs of malnutrition and dehydration. Authorities said the reported deaths could not be independently confirmed.

Rescue and search operations

The survivors said that 19 people had originally been aboard the vessel, which was found about 13 nautical miles southwest of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea.

An emergency helicopter was deployed to search the area near the rescue location, while authorities also issued a notice to mariners.

Separate incident

In a separate case near Mallorca later on Tuesday, authorities rescued 17 migrants alive and recovered the bodies of two others from a boat believed to have been carrying about 30 people.

Search operations for the remaining passengers were continuing late on Tuesday.

Migration route

The route from Algeria to the Balearic Islands was the fastest-growing migration route into the European Union between January and June, according to EU border agency Frontex, despite an overall fall in arrivals to the bloc.

Spain’s Interior Ministry said overall arrivals to Spain had fallen by nearly 25 per cent.

Frontex said last year that smugglers were shifting operations from Morocco to Algeria because of what they viewed as less stringent controls, using faster boats. Spain has sought to strengthen migration-control cooperation with Algeria over the past year.