Madar (International) - A boat carrying 125 people, including 11 women and five minors, reached the port of La Restinga on El Hierro, in Spain's Canary Islands, under its own power around midday on Sunday, 25 October 2026, emergency and rescue sources told the EFE news agency, according to Canary Islands broadcaster RTVC.
On arrival at the quay, the occupants were assisted by the Red Cross and the 112 emergency service. All appeared to be in good health and none needed to be taken to hospital.
The arrival comes as the migration route to El Hierro intensifies: more than 1,500 people have landed on the island over the past week aboard some twenty boats, the same source said. Three boats had brought 252 migrants in under 24 hours between Friday night and Saturday morning, carrying 78, 72 and 102 people, all of sub-Saharan origin.
To avoid overcrowding in the island's temporary reception centres, 471 migrants were transferred on Sunday morning to Gran Canaria from the port of La Estaca in Valverde: 390 had been housed at the temporary foreigners' care centre (CATE) in San Andres and 81 at the former convent of La Frontera, run by the Red Cross. In all, 900 people have been moved off El Hierro since Friday.
Senegalese news site Senego reported that the boat that arrived on Sunday had left Brufut, in Gambia, with Senegalese, Gambian and Guinean nationals aboard. Those details were not included in the accounts of the Spanish emergency sources, which did not disclose the departure point.
