Spain’s Guardia Civil police said on Sunday that they had arrested seven people smugglers accused of murdering four migrants during a sea crossing in November from the African mainland to the Canary Islands.
The seven were detained at an emergency accommodation centre on the island of Tenerife, the Guardia Civil said.
Police described them as the ‘captains’ of a vessel that docked in the island of El Hierro on 3 November, with 207 asylum seekers on board.
‘They are suspected of killing four of the people, two days before the boat reached the Canaries coast,’ they said.
Police launched an investigation into the deaths as a result of witness accounts from migrants, who described the journey as ‘a nightmare’.
According to the probe, the boat left the coast of Gambia and made a stopover on the Senegalese island of Bassoul, where the majority of the passengers boarded.
After three days at sea, three traffickers appointed to maintain order onboard took it upon themselves to punish some of the asylum seekers.
One of the passengers ‘who was probably affected by the harshness of the journey, became disoriented, which led the captains to blame him for all the problems of the crossing and start beating him and those who tried to defend him’, police said.
The traffickers then ‘apparently decided to murder four of the migrants to frighten the rest’.
Three of the victims have been identified and their families notified.
Of the asylum seekers who survived the voyage to the Canaries, one was taken to hospital for surgery to his chest after what police said may have been a knife wound.
Along with Italy and Greece, Spain is one of the main destinations for asylum seekers attempting to enter the European Union.
The number of undocumented migrants entering via the Canary Islands has risen sharply in recent years.
Spanish sea rescue teams say they have gone to the aid of a dozen boats in difficulty, carrying more than 500 people in total, in the dangerous waters around the archipelago.
This year, more than 10,400 asylum seekers — many fleeing war, persecution or poverty at home — have drowned or gone missing at sea while trying to reach Spain, according to a report published by human rights organisation Caminando Fronteras. ALSO READ: More than 10,450 migrants died in 2024 trying to reach Spain by sea.
#OperacionesGC
— Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) December 29, 2024
Detenidos 7 patrones de cayuco que presuntamente asesinaron a 4 personas 2 días antes de alcanzar las costas canarias
Estaban alojados en el dispositivo de emergencia humanitaria de Las Raíces, en la isla de Tenerifehttps://t.co/YPiHBlTsgd pic.twitter.com/2EuywuZ7Al
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