Three days. This is the estimate of the misfortune of the cayuco sinking just 4 miles from El Hierro to strike the island again. As explained by the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, the bodies of the fifty deceased They are probably at the bottom and will rise to the surface. in this period, where the process of putrefaction brings them to the surface.
Emergency crews reported this process, noting that tides could bring the corpses towards the coast, mainly in the eastern part of the archipelago.
In the early hours of yesterday Saturday, the occupants of a canoe with 84 people on board managed to communicate with land, reporting the desperate situation they were experiencing after being abandoned. drifting without a motor and spending two days without water or food. Rescuers located the boat four miles from the coast, but at the most delicate moment of the rescue and with complex situations of waves and strong wind, many occupants They stood up when they saw the rescue ship and capsized the boat. on one side. So far, 36 people have been rescued, including 4 minors and 9 bodies, although there is little hope of finding anyone else alive.
Fernando Clavijo regretted it “sad tragedy” and announced that they will “strengthen all the services that depend on the autonomous community”, such as health services, forensic medicine or regional police, to try to alleviate logistics in El Hierro in the face of this unexpected situation. “We knew this was going to happen and we warned that it was going to get worse,” he lamented.
“It is unlikely that we will be able to rescue more people in the next few hours,” he said, even though search operations were reactivated in the first hour. more Maybe ‘in the next two, three daysdue to putrefaction and other circumstances, corpses can appear with the currents, predictably further east of the archipelago.
He expressed his gratitude to the rescuers, the Red Cross, the state security forces and agencies, the local police, the regional police, the volunteers and the Canarian people who “dedicated themselves to this circumstance, a once again, demonstrating professionalism and enduring a large workload. and physical, professional and emotional pressure.
The president of the Canary Islands stressed that “this situation must unfortunately serve us all, for the immediate and urgent search for an agreement this allows us to adequately manage this phenomenon”, because “we cannot resign ourselves to the fact that this is yet another sad event”. He stressed that “unfortunately, the months to come will get worse ” and that it is “our responsibility, that of all public administrations, to give an immediate response, because the Canarian people deserve it and also those who travel to flee hunger and death” to the Canarian coasts.
Vice President Manuel Domínguez reiterated the need for “help,” he said: “we would get down on our knees ask for help from all administrations”, because “the Canarian people need it”.
He hopes that this sad event will at least serve to “shake the conscience of many people” and that thus “politics will be agitated so that all the relevant agreements are concluded” which will allow “to carry out this policy effectively and efficiently”. out.”
Immigration policy “is relevant and urgent”, he stressed. “We absolutely need the Canary Islands to be taken care of in a situation like this” and “I hope that if the cry of Lampedusa was heard beyond the border and was activated from the European Union , now the cry of the Canary Islands is also heard.
According to what they reported, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, contacted them; the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres; and the Secretary of State for Justice, Manuel Olmedo.
