Spanish agency: A tourist boat rescued 68 migrants from a wooden boat floating in the Atlantic Ocean

A large tourist cruise ship rescued 68 migrants in the Atlantic Ocean from a wooden boat that was floating near the Canary Islands, the Spanish Sea Rescue Agency announced today.

The statement said that on Wednesday, an oil tanker traveling from northwestern Spain to Brazil spotted the boat 815 kilometers south of Tenerife, one of the seven islands in the Canary archipelago.

Spanish authorities then diverted the Insignia, a 185-meter cruise ship with 700 passengers, to rescue the migrants. The crew of the "Insignia" took three out of the five bodies of the dead from the boat, and they were unable to retrieve two bodies because of the waves.

The Spanish rescue agency said the Insignia was expected to arrive in the port of Santa Cruz on Tenerife on Friday.

The Canary Islands are the destination for ships full of migrants who set off from northwest Africa on the dangerous Atlantic route in search of a better life in Europe.

Spain's interior ministry said a record 55.618 migrants arrived by boat last year, most of them to the Canary Islands, almost double the number of the previous year.

This year, more than 23.000 have already arrived, the Ministry announced.

Spanish nonprofit Caminando Fronteras says more than 5.000 migrants have died this year trying to reach Spanish shores, most on the Atlantic route. The death toll for the whole of 2023 was 6.600, which is more than double the number of 2022.