7 Minors Among 29 Dead on Migrant Boat to Canary Islands

A wooden boat is towed by a Spanish Maritime Rescue Service ship as they arrive at the port of Los Cristianos in the south of Tenerife, in the Canary Island, Spain, on April 28, 2021. Andres Gutierrez/AP Photo

MADRID—At least 29 Africans, including seven children, died last week while trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands on a smuggling boat, according to information released Monday from a U.N. migration agency and a Spanish migrant charity in touch with victims’ relatives.

Spanish maritime services on Friday rescued 27 migrants and recovered 4 bodies in the boat that was spotted by a fishing vessel 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of El Hierro, an island in the Canary archipelago off northwest Africa.