Reuters and CNN reported that a total of 227 people were rescued. The Washington Post could not immediately verify that figure.
The incidents come as the number of migrants crossing into Europe has increased in recent years, especially on the route to the Canary Islands, with most coming from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Separately, Moroccan authorities directed the rescue of another group of 24 people near the Canary Islands, Spanish authorities said Wednesday. The bodies of a man and a child were also found, the Associated Press reported.
Alarm Phone, an activist group with members in Europe and North Africa, said Wednesday that at least another 35 people from that boat were still missing at sea.
Alarm Phone criticized rescuers for not moving faster. “We learned that the ~59 people shipwrecked, only 24 people were intercepted by the Moroccan Navy, at least 35 people are still missing. Why did nobody intervene earlier?,” it said on Twitter.
Helena Maleno of Caminando Fronteras, another group advocating for better safety efforts for migrants, said 39 people had died in the incident, including four women and a baby.
The Washington Post could not immediately verify the numbers from Alarm Phone or Caminando Fronteras.
After receiving a distress call from the rubber dinghy, a Spanish official told the Associated Press that a plane was sent to check on it but then reported that it showed no signs of trouble. The boat, however, subsequently sank and a Moroccan merchant ship rescued 24 of those on board.
The number of migrants traveling from West and North Africa to the Canary Islands has risen in recent years, according to a report published by The Global Initiative, a Switzerland-based think tank, reaching 60,000 from January 2020 to October 2022. That was up from 9,500 between 2009 and 2019. An additional unknown number of migrants have disappeared at sea, it says.
So far this year, close to 82,000 migrants have come to Europe, while 1,380 either perished or went missing along the way, according to the U.N. migration agency. Last year, almost 190,000 arrived while close to 3,000 people died or went missing.
