MADRID: Sixteen migrants remained missing at sea a day after Spain’s coast guard rescued a boat off the Canary Islands carrying around 40 survivors and a dead body, a government spokesman said Thursday.
“According to testimony from the 40 migrants who were rescued... another 16 people fell into the water off Fuerteventura,” the spokeswoman told AFP, referring to one of the islands on the Atlantic archipelago.
Sources in Salvamento Maritimo, Spain’s coast guard, also confirmed that 16 people were said to have gone missing from the boat they rescued, which was carrying 41 survivors and the body of a person who had died.
The rescue took place some 35 kilometers south of Fuerteventura, which is the closest island to the African coastline from which many boats set sail in a bid to reach European soil.
According to Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish NGO that helps migrant boats in distress, a total of 4,404 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain last year, up from 2,170 in 2020.
It was the highest yearly number since the group began keeping records in 2015. Many of the bodies are never found.
According to figures compiled by the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project, at least 1,176 people died or went missing in 2021 on the Canary Islands route, while at least 384 others were lost in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Spain from Morocco and Algeria.
Last year, 40,100 migrants managed to reach Spain by sea, interior ministry figures show, a figure almost identical to the number that arrived a year earlier.
16 migrants missing after boat saved off Canary Islands
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16 migrants missing after boat saved off Canary Islands
- “According to testimony from the 40 migrants who were rescued... another 16 people fell into the water off Fuerteventura,” the spokeswoman told AFP
- The rescue took place some 35 kilometres south of Fuerteventura
Venezuelan activist Javier Tarazona released from prison as US diplomat assumes post
- Human rights activist Javier Tarazona was arrested in July 2021
- He was released shortly after the arrival in Caracas of US charge d’affaires
CARACAS: Venezuelan human rights activist Javier Tarazona, an ally of opposition leader María Corina Machado, was released from prison after the government promised to free political prisoners in an amnesty bill, rights organizations and family members said Sunday.
Tarazona, the director of the Venezuelan nonprofit human rights group FundaRedes, was arrested in July 2021, after reporting to authorities that he had been harassed by national intelligence officials. Two other activists of the group were also detained at the time.
Venezuela’s Foro Penal, a rights group that monitors the situations of political prisoners in the country, said Sunday that 317 people jailed for political reasons had been released as of noon local time Sunday, and 700 others were still waiting to be freed.
“After 1675 days, four years and seven months, this wishful day has arrived. My brother Javier Tarazona is free,” José Rafael Tarazona Sánchez wrote on X. “Freedom for one is hope for all.”
Tarazona was released shortly after the arrival in Caracas of US Charge d’Affaires Laura Dogu, who will reopen the American diplomatic mission after seven years of severed ties. It comes after US President Donald Trump ordered a military action that removed the South American country’s former President Nicolás Maduro from office and brought him to trial in the US
Dogu, who was previously ambassador in Nicaragua and Honduras, arrived in Venezuela one day after the country’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced an amnesty bill to release political prisoners. That move was one of the key demands of the Venezuelan opposition.
Venezuela’s government had accused Tarazona of terrorism, betraying the nation and hate speech, all frequent accusations it makes against real or potential opposition members. Tarazona was vocal against illegal armed groups on the country’s border with Colombia and their alleged connection to high-ranked members of the Maduro administration.
Amnesty International reported that Tarazona’s health has deteriorated due to lack of medical attention during his time in prison.
“All of Venezuela admires you and respects your bravery and your commitment,” Machado said on X. “You, better than anyone, know that there will be justice in Venezuela. Freedom for all political prisoners.”
Venezuela’s government denies it jails members of the opposition and accuses them of conspiring to bring it down.
