A baby boy has been born on a small, crowded boat carrying 60 people on the deadly Atlantic migration route from Africa to the Canary Islands.
The boat was spotted off the coast of Lanzarote on the feast of the Epiphany, the day when Spanish children receive presents from the Three Wise Men.
When a crew from the Spanish Salvamento Marítimo rescue service reached the boat, it found 60 people onboard, among them 14 women and four children – including the baby boy who was born on 6 January.
Domingo Trujillo, the captain of the Talía search and rescue vessel, said that although his crew knew a woman on the boat was pregnant, they had no idea that she had already given birth.
“The surprise was [finding] a totally naked baby who was born 10, 15 or 20 minutes earlier,” he told the state broadcaster TVE. Trujillo said the mother was lying on the floor of the crowded boat while the baby was in the hands of someone else near her.
“I covered him up, took him here [to my chest] and patted him so that he would stop crying,” the captain added.
Medics onboard recommended the mother and baby be transferred to a hospital by helicopter.
“It being Three Kings Day, this was the best gift we could have received,” Álvaro Serrano Pérez, the commander of the helicopter, told Reuters.
In a post on X, Salvamento Marítimo said: “Christmas ended in the Canaries with the rescue of a baby boy born on a sea crossing … Although all the rescues and efforts deserve recognition, here’s one that’s calls out irresistibly.”
The seven Spanish islands off north-western Africa’s Atlantic coast are struggling to absorb a record number of people arriving by sea.
Last year, 46,843 people reached the Canaries on the increasingly perilous Atlantic route, up from 39,910 in 2023.
According to a recent report from the Caminando Fronteras migration NGO, at least 10,457 people died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea from 1 January to 5 December 2024.
Caminando Fronteras said the death toll was a 50% increase on 2023 and the highest since its tallies began in 2007. It attributed the rise to the use of ramshackle boats, dangerous waters and a lack of resources for rescuers.
Reuters contributed to this report
