LISBON: A wooden boat packed with 38 people, including seven children, landed in southern Portugal, officials said Saturday, a rare arrival destination among migrant routes from North Africa to Europe.
The boat with 25 men, six women and seven minors arrived at a beach hear the town of Vila do Bispo in the Portugal’s southernmost Algarve province on Friday at around 8:00 p.m. (1900 GMT), the GNR police unit said in a statement.
“The migrants were in a debilitated state and in need of medical care, showing signs of dehydration and hypothermia,” it added, saying ten migrants were taken to hospital for medical observation.
Officials did not release information about the nationalities of the boat’s passengers or its departure point, but public broadcaster RTP reported the vessel left Morocco and spent six days at sea before reaching Portugal.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to southern Europe in recent years but they have not typically headed to Portugal, on Europe’s southwest Atlantic coast.