“Fifty people have died on a boat headed for the Canary Islands, 44 of whom were Pakistani,” CEO of Caminando Fronteras / Walking Borders Helena Maleno, wrote on X. “They spent 13 agonising days at sea without rescuers reaching them.”

In 2024, an average of nearly two migrant boats reached the Canary Islands each day. 692 boats in all carried more than 46,000 people that year, mostly from Mauritania, Senegal and Morocco. The majority arrive to the tiny,