Shocking footage shows three migrants on board the ship’s rudder blade

A photo was shared at Tuesday’s events Three men survived 11 day trip from Nigeria to Spain Sitting on the rudder blade of a large oil tanker. This image was released by the Spanish Maritime Rescue AgencyAfter arriving at the port of Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria, he helped the three protagonists of the event.

Salvamento and the EFE news agency reported that the rescue took place after three migrants of African descent. They were found in the lower part of the ship. They sailed on a Maltese-flagged tanker called “Alithini II”. It left Lagos port in Nigeria on November 17, the rescue agency said. The place where they are found is on the outside of the ship’s hull, in a place called the rudder blade, where they are exposed and vulnerable to any blow from the sea.

The migrants were taken to health centers on the island where, despite the conditions of their journey, they remained dehydrated but generally in good health.

Spanish journalist specializing in migration issues, Texema Santana, He wrote on his Twitter account: “They spent the week before they left Nigeria, at the helm of the boat, very close to the water. The survival odyssey is beyond imagination. It will not be the first or the last. Stowaways don’t always have the same luck.”

Officials pointed out that this is not the first time migrants have been detected using this part of the ship. In November 2020, three more people were found in the rudder of the Ocean Princess II.

A 14-year-old boy among them told the newspaper Country How he survived the journey by drinking salt water They took turns sleeping in a hole above the rudder with the other men he traveled with. “We were very weak. I never thought it would be so difficult“, said.

In another incident of the same year, Four men were spotted at the helm of the Norwegian oil tanker Champion PulaAfter traveling from Lagos to Las Palmas.

That was reported by the news at that time They hid in a room behind the head when they were at sea for 10 days.

The number of migrants sailing from West Africa to the Canary Islands has increased significantly in recent years. The journeys were long, dangerous and dangerous. In 2021, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded 1,532 deaths along the route.

BBC World