A treacherous journey that has often spelled death for asylum seekers crossing the Atlantic Ocean ended with the miracle of life this week, after a baby girl was born on a migrant boat headed toward Spain’s Canary Islands.
In a photo that captured the moment those on the dinghy were rescued, the newborn baby could be seen aboard the vessel as she lay in the lap of her mother while she rested.
The boat was spotted off the island of Lanzarote on Monday, as Spain marked the Epiphany holiday, also known as Three Kings Day, meant to honor the day the three wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus, rescuers said.
“Christmas ends in the Canary Islands with the rescue of a baby born in the middle of a voyage on the sea,” Salvamento Marítimo, the Spanish government’s maritime rescue agency, said in a post on X on Wednesday.
The agency said rescue crews were able to safely rescue those onboard the dinghy, with the mother and her newborn child airlifted to Lanzarote’s eastern city of Arrecife. Local media reported that they were taken to to a hospital nearby.
Salvamento Marítimo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the mother and child’s condition on Thursday. Reuters reported that the child was a baby girl, citing regional government and medical authorities.
Domingo Trujillo, captain of the agency’s rescue vessel, told broadcaster TVE that rescuers had been aware a pregnant woman was onboard the dinghy.
“The surprise was … a totally naked baby who was born 10, 15 or 20 minutes earlier,” he said, according to news agency Reuters. He said he covered the baby up and patted the baby so it would stop crying.
“Being Three Kings Day, this was the best gift we could have received,” Alvaro Serrano Perez, commander of the helicopter, told Reuters.
The incident came as the Canary Island sees a rise in the number of migrant coming from countries such as Mali, Senegal and Morocco.
The Canary Islands Route saw a second consecutive annual high in 2024, with its almost 47,000 arrivals comprising 73% of irregular migration to Spain, according to the country’s interior ministry.
In 2024, a record 10,457 people died or went missing while attempting to reach Spain through unofficial maritime routes, with the journey to the Canary Islands seeing the highest death toll, according to Spanish migration rights group Caminando Fronteras. NBC News was not able to independently verify the data.
Salvamento Marítimo said this was not the first such rescue for Trujillo, the ship’s captain. In 2020, it said he responded to a similar incident in which a woman had also just given birth on a dinghy crossing the Atlantic.
“We take this opportunity to express our admiration for Domingo and the rest of the crew who every day give their best to assist thousands of people trying to reach the Canary Islands,” the agency said.
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