Seven migrant women and children died metres from shore in Canary Islands

MADRID, May 31 (Reuters) - Seven migrant women and children who died when their boat capsized just metres from shore in Spain's Canary Islands were buried on Friday at the La Restringa harbour where they had hoped to find safety.
Two five-year-old girls and a 16-year-old were among the dead, emergency services said. The migrant boat capsized as rescuers were escorting it to port at La Restringa on the El Hierro island on Wednesday, the services said.
"I heard the screams and didn't hesitate. Like any citizen faced with an emergency or an accident, I got in my car, rushed to where the boat was, and helped however I could," Javier Iglesias, a La Restringa resident, said at the funeral of the seven, which was also attended by surviving migrants.
"What really moves you and leaves an impression is when you see the faces, the expressions of those people who didn't reach their dream, just five metres from the shore."
The number of migrants reaching the Canary Islands from West Africa hit an all-time high in 2024, but the number of arrivals has fallen this year, Interior Ministry data shows.
In the first five months of 2024, 4,808 people died on the perilous Atlantic voyage to the Canaries after leaving Africa, according to migrant rights group Walking Borders.

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The Sun

10 hours ago

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Conor McGregor sports suspect eye as UFC thug dances with wife on yacht in first sighting since horror Ibiza attack

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Daily Mail​

11 hours ago

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Inside the migrant gateway to Britain that staff say is a TINDERBOX: Manston is where most illegal boat migrants are taken for processing, but the truth about what happens there is as alarming as it's scandalous

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They are not allowed mobiles at the camp, but are permitted to use on-site phones to call immigration lawyers for advice. Within 'normally just 72 hours', they are bussed out, in vehicles with darkened windows and often at night, to requisitioned hotels or leased Home Office houses up and down Britain. 'The Manston staff are getting depressed, even suicidal,' claimed one of our informants. 'As for the migrants themselves, the men often have sexually transmitted diseases, and scabies affects a lot of them. 'I have seen foreign mothers so tired and dehydrated as they waited in the custody marquee on a hard seat, that they nearly let their babies slip from their laps to the ground. 'The sights you see are unimaginable. Some 'residents' are whole families of three generations from the grandfather to his grandchildren. They are clearly here seeking a better life but still claim to be asylum seekers.' Our probe into the camp coincided with a damning report this week that exposed the extent of child rape grooming gangs in Britain's towns and cities. The author, Baroness Casey, revealed for the first time that asylum seekers and foreign nationals are involved in a 'significant proportion' of the around 12 live police investigations into this hideous crime. The disclosure has led Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to accept Baroness Casey's recommendation for the mandatory collection of the ethnicity and nationality of all child sex abuse suspects. Foreign-born paedophiles will, in future, be banned from claiming asylum. Ministry of Justice data also shows that one in five child-sex offence convictions involves foreign nationals. The worrying statistic was handed to the Independent MP Rupert Lowe who is running his own national 'Rape Gang Inquiry' after the Government initially refused to do so. He says not a 'single foreign national should be in our country raping children'. Shadow Home Secretary, Tory Chris Philp has also stated that a 'significant' number of the paedophiles involved in grooming gangs are asylum seekers or foreigners. 'More illegal immigrants have entered the UK across the Channel so far this year than any other in history,' he added. All this is highly relevant to what is going on at Manston and begs the question of whether the checks made there are worth the paper they are printed on. Last year the Mail published a map of England showing where asylum seekers had been convicted of crimes, including paedophilia, rape, knife attacks and murders, around the country. Many had slipped in by boat across the Channel. Our report highlighted an Afghan asylum seeker, Rasuili Zubaidullah, 22, who had drugged, raped and killed a 13-year-old girl in Vienna, Austria, in 2020. Just weeks after committing the crime, as a manhunt for him was launched by Vienna police, he sailed to Britain on a trafficker's boat using a fake name. 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I will marry and convert her (to Islam). Get the police. I don't care.' Another video from a team shows the capture of 'lonely' asylum seeker Kalid Oryakhel. He had been in the country nine months and living in a Home Office migrants' hotel in Otley, near Leeds, when he tried to groom two young girls on-line. A court in 2023 heard the 26-year-old 'predator', believed to be an Afghan, had invited the children to 'make love' in the hotel garden, then sent them lewd messages and a three-minute film of him masturbating. He was found guilty and jailed for 45 months. Our contacts among the online protection teams told us this week: 'The migrant hotels do harbour sex pests and predators. It is naïve to say otherwise. 'They are getting to live among us in Britain and are endangering our children.' None of this would surprise the Manston whistleblowers who are ordered by the Home Office never to talk about their work. 'We have got to the point where we cannot remain silent,' said one of them. 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The Independent

12 hours ago

• The Independent

San Diego clergy visit federal immigration court to bear witness during crackdown on migrants

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