By Borja Suarez
GRAN CANARIA, Spain (Reuters) – Over 230 migrants were rescued from one flimsy boat on Sunday in seas off Spain’s Canary Islands, coastguards said.
Fourteen women and three children were found in the same boat which contained a total of 231 people, rescuers said.
It is the largest number of people to be rescued from the same boat off the island of Gran Canaria this year, Spanish coastguards told Reuters.
Spanish coastguards towed the wooden boat when they found the migrants close to Gran Canaria’s main port.
Some 32,878 migrants have taken the perilous route in boats from West Africa to the Canary Islands between January and Oct. 15, according to government figures, a rise of 39.7% from the same period last year.
The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands has seen the fastest growth in irregular migration in recent years, though numbers remain below those on the Central Mediterranean route towards Italy.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley, Borja Suarez, Silvio Castellanos; Editing by Ros Russell)
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