At least 80 die on migrant boat found drifting off Gran Canaria having set sail from African coast 26 days ago

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 04:34 EDT, 3 September 2026 | Updated: 04:47 EDT, 3 September 2026 More than 80 people, including a baby, are feared to have died on a migrant boat found drifting off the Spanish island of Gran Canaria.The overpacked boat is believed to have left Gambia 27 days ago with 128 people on board.Only 45 survivors and five bodies remained on board when Spanish coastguards went to its aid after receiving an alert yesterday evening.The vessel was located 75 miles south of Gran Canaria after the alarm was raised around 7.40pm.The rescue operation in rough seas began shortly after midnight today.Three of the survivors had to be airlifted to two Gran Canaria hospitals. The rest were taken to Arguineguin Port in the south-east of the holiday island and arrived around 5.20am this morning.Helena Maleno Garzon, a Spanish-Moroccan journalist and researcher who is a member of the ONG Caminando Fronteras, said 83 people, including three women and a baby, had lost their lives in the tragedy. Migrants wait to be assisted by the Red Cross after disembarking from a Spanish coast guard vessel at the port of Arguineguin, on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain, September 3, 2026 Rescuers help a migrant disembark from a Spanish coast guard vessel at the port of ArguineguinShe said on X: 'Eighty-three people have died, among them three women and a baby, on a cayuco boat that left Gambia 27 days ago.'The survivors have been taken to Gran Canaria. May their souls rest in peace.'Spain's Canary Islands have long been a stepping stone for migrants trying to reach Europe from West Africa and Morocco. Some experts consider the Atlantic route they take to get here more deadly than the more well-known central Mediterranean smuggling route from Libya and Tunisia to Italy.Migrant arrivals in the Canary Islands peaked in 2024 at nearly 47,000. The International Organization of Migration's Missing Migrants Project has recorded some 6,600 deaths on the Atlantic route from West Africa since it began recording in 2014. But it admits the estimate is a vast undercount due to the lack of information on the route and the phenomenon of 'invisible shipwrecks.'Since 2020, Spanish migrants' rights group Walking Borders estimates more than 25,000 dead or missing trying to reach the Canary Islands.This is a breaking news story, more to follow.