Last year more than 23,000 people arrived on the Canary Islands from the West African coast, and figures for the first four months of this year, comments Boelpap in his radio report, show that trend accelerating. According to one Spanish NGO on the Canary Islands, about 1850 people died attempting the Atlantic crossing last year, making that route to Europe one of the most deadly.
Urgent rescue mission We descended to 500 feet and we discovered that there were three people who were conscious, explains one of the Spanish military crew, Captain Alex Gomez.
A screenshot of the Search and Rescue helicopter from the Spanish military used in the mission | Source: BBC Video