Boat capsizes with 30 migrants near Cabrera: two dead and ten missing

Maritime Rescue and the Civil Guard have rescued 17 migrants and recovered two bodies after a boat capsized southeast of Cabrera. A search is underway for a dozen people.

Maritime Rescue and the Civil Guard are maintaining an active search operation following the capsizing of a boat southeast of Cabrera, in Balearic waters. So far, 17 sub-Saharan migrants have been rescued alive and two bodies have been recovered.

The vessel, with around thirty people on board according to initial estimates, is believed to have capsized around 07:00 on Monday. The alert was raised at 12:10 on Tuesday when a Maritime Rescue helicopter spotted two castaways about eight miles southeast of Cabrera island.

The first two rescued were taken to the Son Espases University Hospital in Palma. Between 12:30 and 14:30, the Provincial Maritime Service of the Civil Guard located another 12 migrants and recovered the two deceased bodies, which were taken to the port of Colònia de Sant Jordi.

Six of the rescued have had to be hospitalised, three of them with burns and symptoms of exhaustion. One of these three was referred to Son Espases, while the other three, rescued by the Maritime Rescue helicopter, were taken to the Son Llàtzer University Hospital after landing at Palma airport.

The provisional balance is 17 survivors, three of them women, and two deceased. The Government Delegation in the Balearics estimates that there could be around ten missing, as the boat may be the same vessel with 29 migrants on board that Maritime Rescue was already aware of.

This new shipwreck occurs on the same day that the death of 17 migrants who drifted for 15 days before being rescued south of Mallorca has been reported, according to the two sole survivors. The NGO Caminando Fronteras has warned that at least five boats with 76 people on board disappeared en route to the Balearics during the month of July.

Aerial and maritime resources from Maritime Rescue and the Civil Guard continue to scour the area to locate the missing. The Government delegation does not rule out that the balance may change in the coming hours.