(Reuters) Nearly 32,000 migrants have reached Spain’s Canary Islands on fragile boats from west Africa this year, passing a previous record posted in 2006, regional authorities said on Sunday.
So far this year, 31,933 people have reached the islands, compared with the 2006 small boats crisis when 31,678 people made it to the Canaries, regional authorities told Reuters.
Since Friday, 739 people have been rescued in the Atlantic Ocean off El Hierro, the smallest and most westerly island in the archipelago, the Spanish coastguard said.
Two people were found dead in four boats and two other people died later in hospital, said the Spanish Civil Guard on Saturday, which also took part in the rescue in which women and children were among those saved.
