Laurence Dollimore
A NEWBORN baby is recovering in a Spanish hospital after being born on a packed migrant boat en route to Spain.
The girl and mother remain at the Molina Orosa University Hospital in Lanzarote where they are being treated with antibiotics, reports Reuters.
They had been heading on a dinghy from Morocco to Lanzarote when the mother suddenly went into to labour.
The boat was carrying 60 migrants – including 14 women and four children – from the North African province of Tan-Tan, some 135 nautical miles southeast of the Canary island.
Cristina Ruiz, spokeswoman for the regional government, said the mother and child will be moved to a humanitarian centre after treatment, before most likely being sent to a specialised reception centre for young children and mothers.
Domingo Trujillo, captain of the Spanish rescue ship, told EFE: “The baby was crying, which indicated to us that it was alive and there were no problems, and we asked the woman’s permission to undress her and clean her.
“The umbilical cord had already been cut by one of her fellow passengers. The only thing we did was to check the child, give her to her mother and wrap them up for the trip.”
It comes after a report last month said 10,400 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2024, an average of 30 per day, according to migrant organisation Caminando Fronteras.
The overall death toll rose by 58% compared to last year, the report added.
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Tens of thousands of migrants left West Africa in 2024 for the Canary Islands which has been increasingly used as a stepping stone to get asylum in mainland Spain and the rest of Europe.
Caminando Fronteras said most of the 10,457 deaths recorded up until December 15 took place along the so-called Atlantic route — considered one of the world’s most dangerous.
The organisation compiles its figures from families of migrants and official statistics of those rescued.
It included 1,538 children and 421 women among the dead with April and May the deadliest months, according to the report.
Caminando Fronteras also noted a ‘sharp increase’ in 2024 in boats leaving from Mauritania, which it said became the main departure point on the route to the Canaries.
In February, Spain pledged €210 million in aid to Mauritania to help it crack down on human smugglers and stop boat journeys.
Spain’s interior ministry says more than 57 700 migrants reached Spain by boat up to December 15 last year – a roughly 12% increase on the same period in 2023.
