At least four people were found dead on a migrant boat off the Canary Islands on Sunday, according to the Spanish Red Cross.
The bodies were recovered from the ship along with 19 survivors by the Spanish authorities.
The migrants had attempted to travel the dangerous route from West Africa to the Canary Islands in a vessel unsuitable for the high seas.
Rescue services responded to an alert from a fishing boat that had located the boat just 120 miles south of the small island of El Hierro.
Helicopters carried people in serious condition and suffered from dehydration by airlift to the island of Tenerife.
In recent years, the Atlantic crossing from the west coast of Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands has become a major passage for undocumented migrants and refugees.
There were record arrivals in 2020, more than eight times higher than in 2019, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Africa’s tourism economy and forced many more people to take the risky journey.
According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, hundreds have died or gone missing trying to reach the archipelago in overcrowded and poorly equipped boats.
Since 2014, the Missing Migrants Project reports that more than 20,000 migrants have died trying to reach Europe from Africa.
According to Al Jazeera, an estimated 3,400 migrants arrived on the coast of the Canary Islands from January 1 to March 31 this year.
With pole wires