April 27 On the evening of April 26, local time, Italian customs and its law enforcement and financial police patrol boat intercepted a boat carrying 34 refugees in the waters of San Maria di Leuca in southern Italy, Euronews reported.
On the same day, a spokesman for the Spanish Maritime Rescue and Safety Association told the media that at least 17 refugees trying to reach Spain by boat were killed in waters near the Canary Islands.
Police officers from Italy’s fiscal police force said the intercepted refugee boats were with 31 men and three minors from Iran and Iraq. The refugees had been on the road for six days, two of them on suspicion of organizing smuggling, and police had stepped in to investigate.
The officer stressed that during the rescue of 34 refugees by the financial police, an Italian coast guard frigate also found a refugee boat carrying 78 people from Egypt, Iraq and Kyrgyzstan, including 35 unaccompanied minors. The 112 refugees rescued by italy’s financial police and coastguard have been taken to the Red Cross reception centre in Otranto for quarantine and resettlement.
A Spanish Air Force helicopter rescued a refugee boat that was floating 490 kilometers southwest of Yero Island in the Canary Islands, a spokesman for the Spanish Maritime Rescue and Safety Association said Tuesday. Rescuers found the bodies of 17 dead people on board, including women and children.
A spokesman for the Spanish Maritime Rescue and Safety Association said Spanish air force helicopters rescued three survivors from the boat. The survivors have now been taken to Yero Island and provided with medical assistance, after which they have been transferred to Tenerife Hospital.
The report said it was the biggest tragedy in the waters of Spain’s Canary Islands since Last August, when a boat with 15 refugees was found dead in waters 200km from Grand Canaria.
