Sixteen migrants missing after boat saved off Canary Islands

The boat was carrying about 40 survivors and a body, with 16 people thought to have fallen into the water

Migrants arrive at Gran Tarajal port in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain, late on February 2, after their rescue by the Spanish coastguard. EPA

Sixteen migrants remained missing at sea a day after Spain's coastguard rescued a boat off the Canary Islands carrying about 40 survivors and a body, a government spokeswoman said on Thursday.

"According to testimony from the 40 migrants who were rescued ... another 16 people fell into the water off Fuerteventura," the spokeswoman told AFP, referring to one of the islands on the Atlantic archipelago.

The rescue took place about 35 kilometres south of Fuerteventura, which is the closest island to the African coastline from which many boats set sail in a bid to reach European soil.

Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish NGO that helps migrant boats in distress, said 4,404 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain last year, up from 2,170 in 2020.

It was the highest yearly number since the group began keeping records in 2015. Many of the bodies are never found.

According to figures compiled by the International Organisation for Migration's Missing Migrants Project, at least 1,176 people died or went missing in 2021 on the Canary Islands route, while at least 384 others were lost in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Spain from Morocco and Algeria.

Last year, 40,100 migrants managed to reach Spain by sea, Interior Ministry figures show, almost the same as the number who arrived a year earlier.