EL HIERRO: Two boats loaded with migrants reached the Canary Islands late on Sunday as rescuers kept searching for 48 missing from an earlier sea wreck that may be the deadliest such accident for 30 years in the Spanish archipelago.
A makeshift vessel carrying 81 migrants reached Tenerife, the Canaries’ largest island, emergency services said on Sunday evening. At least one of the migrants required hospitalization.
Another migrant boat reached the second largest Canary island, Fuerteventura. The emergency services did not specify the number of migrants on that boat. A third boat containing some 80 migrants was nearing the smallest island of El Hierro.
The two crossings followed a disastrous sinking of a migrant boat at the weekend that killed at least nine people and left at least 48 missing, including one under 18 years old, rescue services said. Rescuers were able to pick up 27 of 84 migrants who were trying to reach Spanish shores from West Africa.
The disaster prompted Fernando Clavijo, the Canary Islands’ regional president, to call for mainland Spain and the European Union to act to ease a crisis in which migrant crossings from West Africa to the archipelago have soared by 85 percent this year.
“This situation sadly should push us all to immediately and urgently seek an agreement that allows us to deal with this phenomenon,” Clavijo told reporters.
The number of migrants crossing from West Africa to the Canary Islands, a perilous journey that can be as long as 800 miles (1,300 km), rose between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 to 26,758, interior ministry data show. Meanwhile, the migrant flow from North Africa along routes in the central and western Mediterranean ebbed, EU Frontex border agency figures indicate.
Calm seas and gentle winds associated with late summer in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa have prompted a renewed surge of migrants, local authorities said this month.
Earlier this year, Clavijo said his teams expected 70,000 migrants to reach the Spanish archipelago by year end, almost a two-fold rise versus 2023 record arrivals of 39,910.
The rising number of migrants, driven by extreme poverty and political instability in Africa’s Sahel region, is causing political tension in Spain where mainland regions have resisted calls to take in migrants from the Canary Islands.
In the roughly 30 years of migrant crossings from West Africa to the Canaries, the deadliest recorded shipwreck occurred in 2009 off the island of Lanzarote when 25 people died.
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Two more migrant boats reach Canary Islands after deadly sinking
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Two more migrant boats reach Canary Islands after deadly sinking
- A makeshift vessel carrying 81 migrants reached Tenerife, the Canaries’ largest island, emergency services said on Sunday evening
US military plane hits road barrier during Philippine training, injuring 5 personnel
- A United States military plane carrying five US personnel has hit a concrete fence while attempting to take off from a road during contingency training drill in a northern Philippine province
MANILA: A United States military plane hit a concrete barrier while attempting to take off from a road during contingency training in the Philippines, injuring all five American personnel aboard, Philippine officials said Wednesday.
The pilot and two other American personnel were brought to a hospital for treatment after Tuesday afternoon’s incident in a concrete bypass road in Laoac town in the northern Pangasinan province. Two other injured personnel were treated at the site and the US Air Force transport plane was damaged, police said in a report.
US military officials did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for more details about the incident, including the condition of the injured personnel.
The training, involving the plane landing on and taking off from an “alternate landing zone,” was planned and fully coordinated with Philippine civilian, police and military authorities, three Philippine officials said. The training was meant to prepare military forces for contingencies, such as when regular airports and runways become inaccessible during typhoons and earthquakes.
The three officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the accident publicly, said the cause of the accident was under investigation. The aircraft managed to land during the “supervised activity,” but swerved during takeoff, one of the three officials said.
The US military had deployed aircraft and personnel in the past to help deliver food, medicine and other humanitarian aid to Philippine provinces devastated by typhoons and other natural disasters.
US forces are allowed to conduct training with Filipino counterparts in the Philippines under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement. Large-scale joint combat training drills in recent years have focused on helping the Philippines defend its territorial interests and promote freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, which lies west of Pangasinan.
Confrontations between the coast guard and naval forces of China and the Philippines have flared in recent years in the disputed waters, which is claimed largely by Beijing. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan are also involved in the long-simmering territorial standoffs.
The US does not lay any claims in the contested waters but has repeatedly warned that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines under a mutual defense treaty if Philippine forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
The pilot and two other American personnel were brought to a hospital for treatment after Tuesday afternoon’s incident in a concrete bypass road in Laoac town in the northern Pangasinan province. Two other injured personnel were treated at the site and the US Air Force transport plane was damaged, police said in a report.
US military officials did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for more details about the incident, including the condition of the injured personnel.
The training, involving the plane landing on and taking off from an “alternate landing zone,” was planned and fully coordinated with Philippine civilian, police and military authorities, three Philippine officials said. The training was meant to prepare military forces for contingencies, such as when regular airports and runways become inaccessible during typhoons and earthquakes.
The three officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the accident publicly, said the cause of the accident was under investigation. The aircraft managed to land during the “supervised activity,” but swerved during takeoff, one of the three officials said.
The US military had deployed aircraft and personnel in the past to help deliver food, medicine and other humanitarian aid to Philippine provinces devastated by typhoons and other natural disasters.
US forces are allowed to conduct training with Filipino counterparts in the Philippines under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement. Large-scale joint combat training drills in recent years have focused on helping the Philippines defend its territorial interests and promote freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, which lies west of Pangasinan.
Confrontations between the coast guard and naval forces of China and the Philippines have flared in recent years in the disputed waters, which is claimed largely by Beijing. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan are also involved in the long-simmering territorial standoffs.
The US does not lay any claims in the contested waters but has repeatedly warned that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines under a mutual defense treaty if Philippine forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
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