Five more migrants die in bid to reach Spain

Five more migrants have died while trying to reach the southern Canary Islands from west Africa.

It brings to 20 the number who lost their lives this week attempting to navigate perilous migration routes to Europe, Spanish authorities said yesterday.

Maritime rescuers and police patrols based in Spain picked up 141 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean within 48 hours, the country’s maritime rescue service said.

The rescue operations included a wooden boat located some 110 miles south of the Canaries with 12 survivors on board and four bodies.

Two of the survivors were evacuated by helicopter and one of them later died at the hospital, according to the Spanish government.

The bodies of 15 other migrants who were found dead in another boat earlier in the week, with some floating in sea water their vessel had taken on, were transported on Thursday to Grand Canary Island.