The Spanish coast guard has rescued three migrants who were stowed in a tanker arriving in the Canary Islands from Nigeria balancing on its rudder just above the waterline.
In a photograph shared on Twitter by the coast guard on Monday, the three stowaways are shown at the helm of the oil and chemical tanker Alithini II.
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The Maltese-flagged Alithini II arrived in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria on Monday afternoon after an 11-day voyage from Lagos to Nigeria, according to Marine Traffic, a ship-tracking website.
The migrants were taken to port and treated by health services for dehydration and hypothermia, the coast guard said on Twitter.
Txema Santana, journalist and migration advisor for the Canarian government, has tweeted: “It is not the first and it will not be the last. Smugglers don’t always have the same luck.”
Migrant arrivals in the Canaries, following a perilous crossing from North Africa, have increased dramatically since the end of 2019 after controls on Mediterranean routes were tightened.
In October 2020, four people stowed away at the helm of an oil tanker in Lagos, hiding for 10 days before being discovered by police as the ship entered Las Palmas.
Spanish data show that sea migration to the archipelago increased by 51% in the first five months of the year compared to a year earlier.
Thousands of people die every year on the journey, which is made increasingly dangerous by the use of wooden or inflatable boats.