The Civil Guard announced on Wednesday that seven members of the crew of an overcrowded migrant boat from Senegal arrived in the Canary Islands last December. They were arrested for the alleged murder of eight passengers including a toddler.

Police said that the boat, with 224 passengers on board, arrived at La Restinga Port on the island of El Hierro, on December 28, and some had to be treated immediately for serious injuries. These were presumably caused by a fight during the seven-day journey, the police stated.

Eight passengers who were travelling with them, according to the passengers, were killed by crew members.

Three of the arrested were brought before a court in the Canaries. The judge said that there was proof the crew targeted people with different nationalities.

A 14-month old Gambian child, a father and son from Guinea (50 and 18 years respectively) were also among the dead. The Spanish authorities refused to reveal the nationality of the crew.

Police said that all seven suspects have been sent to jail, pending further investigations.

In another case, the police arrested the crew in November 2024 of a boat which had reached El Hierro. Four passengers were alleged to have died during the dangerous journey.

Seven Spanish islands located off the coast of northwestern Africa are unable to cope with a massive surge in illegal migration, mostly from Mali and Senegal. The dangerous open-sea crossings in boats often operated by migrant trafficking groups claim thousands of lives each year.

According to data from the interior ministry, the number of illegal migrants to Spain reached a record high in 2018. (Reporting and editing by Andrei Khalip, Angus MacSwan, and Emma Pinedo)

(source: Reuters)