Woman gives birth on migrant dinghy en route to Canary Islands

The girl was born on an inflatable vessel coming from Africa, which was rescued minutes later near Lanzarote.

A baby girl has been born on a small, crowded inflatable vessel on the perilous migrant crossing from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands. The baby, right, was looked after by the maritime rescue team and taken to hospital with her mother.

A baby girl has been born on a small, crowded inflatable vessel on the perilous migrant crossing from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands.

The birth of the girl, of sub-Saharan origin, took place on Monday barely 15 minutes before one of Spain’s Maritime Rescue boats intercepted the inflatable. The commercial vessel Mina had spotted the boat, which was carrying 60 people near Lanzarote, and alerted the rescue services.

The mother and the newborn were immediately evacuated by helicopter to Arrecife airport, where an ambulance was waiting to transfer them to the Hospital Insular de Lanzarote. Both were in good health.

Domingo Trujillo, captain of the Guardamar Talía rescue boat, told the Spanish state television broadcaster RTVE that on arrival his crew spotted the baby in the arms of another person close to the mother, lying on the bow of the boat.

“The surprise was (that we found) a totally naked baby who was born 10, 15 or 20 minutes earlier,” he said. “I covered her up, took her here (to my chest) and patted her so that she would stop crying.”

Fourteen women and four children were among the boat’s passengers.

The Times