HARTLAND POINT

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Roro ferry rescued 54 migrants, one died

The 'Hartland Point', en route to Marchwood, disembarked 54 people on Dec 1, 2023, at dawn in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, among them ten women, several of whom being pregnant, and three minors, rescued 185 kilometers south of the island. The migrants were underway in a rubber boat that was about to capsize and in bad sea conditions. One of the occupants of the boat, a woman, had already died. Her body was left adrift in the inflatable boat. The 'Harland Point' reported the sighting on Nov 30 at 11:15 a.m. to the Spanish authorities, who immediately mobilized the 'Salvamar Macondo' from the port of Arguineguín. However, the crew of the merchant ship reported shortly after, that the sea conditions were getting much worse and that the migrant boat was taking on water, so they proceeded to rescue the people on board without further waiting. There were several with significant symptoms of hypothermia, as well as three pregnant women. For this reason, Salvamento Marítimo sent the Helimer 204 rescue helicopter, which evacuated one of the women to the Gran Canaria Airport, who was suffering from hypothermia although she was stable. The merchant ship arrived the next morning at the Port of La Luz and Las Palmas with the 41 men, ten women and three rescued minors. Once ashore, the health services have taken seven of the survivors to hospitals, mainly women and children, who had pathologies of varying severity.