The three men were at sea on their journey from the port city of Lagos in Nigeria to the city of Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria.
A photo shared on Tuesday (11/29) shows three men who survived an 11-day voyage from Nigeria to Spain sitting on the rudder of a large oil tanker.
The image was released by the Salvamento Maritimo agency, linked to the government of Spain, which rescued the three men after their arrival at the port of Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria.
The rescue, according to the official bodies and the Efe agency, took place after the three migrants – of African origin – were spotted on the bottom of the ship.
They were traveling on the Maltese-flagged oil tanker called Alithini II, which left the port of Lagos, Nigeria on November 17, according to the relief agency.
The place where they were found is a space located on the so-called rudder blade, outside the ship’s hull, where they are exposed and vulnerable to the violence of the sea.
The migrants were referred to health centers on the island where it was found that, despite the conditions of the journey and dehydration, they were in good general health.
“They left Nigeria over a week ago, the time they spent at the helm of the ship, very close to the water. The odyssey of survival far surpasses fiction. It is not the first and it will not be the last. Illegal migrants don’t always have the same fate,” Spanish journalist Txema Santana, who specializes in migration issues, wrote on Twitter.
Authorities have indicated that this is not the first time migrants have been detected at the helm of a ship. In November 2020, three more people were found on the rudder blade of the Ocean Princess II ship.
One of them, a 14-year-old boy, told El PaÃs newspaper how he survived the journey by drinking salt water and how he took turns sleeping in a hole above the rudder with the other men he was traveling with.
“We were very weak. I never imagined it could be so difficult,” he said.
In another incident later that year, four men were found at the helm of the Norwegian tanker Champion Pula after traveling from Lagos to Las Palmas.
Reports at the time said the men hid in a compartment behind the wheelhouse during their 10 days at sea.
The number of migrants crossing by boat from West Africa to the Canary Islands has increased significantly in recent years.
The journeys are long, dangerous and deadly. In 2021, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded 1,532 deaths on the route.
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Source: Terra
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
