MADRID: A luxury cruise ship has rescued dozens of African migrants who were trying to reach the Spanish Canary Islands in a fishing boat that had capsized in rough seas killing five, said Spanish authorities on Thursday.
The archipelago has become the key point of entry to Spain for illegal migrants from Africa in recent years, one of the deadliest.
Walking Borders, a migration rights group last week said that nearly 5,000 migrants died at sea on the route in the first five months of the current.
The Coast Guard in a statement said carrier Philipp Oldendorff saw the boat adrift 440 nautical miles south of the island of Tenerife on Wednesday and provided assistance to the migrants, however, the Insignia cruise ship was diverted to pick up the survivors.
The Insignia, owned by US-based Oceania Cruises, also managed to recover three bodies from the boat, but bad weather stopped the recovery of another two bodies.
The small luxury cruise ship with a 670-passenger capacity is on a 180—day tour around the world that started in January.
“Safety of life at sea is of paramount importance for all seafarers,” said a spokesperson for Oceania Cruises, which is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.
The spokesperson confirmed that the Insignia rescued 68 people from a boat in distress between Cape Verde and Tenerife. A Spanish coast guard vessel was en-route from the Canary Islands to locate the shipwreck.
