A BABY boy was born on a crowded migrant dinghy en route to Spain’s Canary Islands.
A total of 60 people were on board the vessel spotted just off Lanzarote, including 14 women and four children.
When the coastguard ship arrived, it found the mum and the newborn baby both in good health.
Domingo Trujillo, the captain of the rescue vessel, told broadcaster TVE they knew there was a pregnant woman on board.
He said: “The surprise was [that we found] a totally naked baby who was born 10, 15 or 20 minutes earlier.”
The woman was lying on the floor of the crowded boat while the miracle baby was in the hands of someone else near her, the captain recalled.
Domingo added: “I covered him up, took him here [to my chest] and patted him so that he would stop crying.”
Medics onboard recommended the mother and baby be transferred to a hospital via helicopter.
Alvaro Serrano Perez, commander of the chopper, told Reuters: “Being Three Kings Day this was the best gift we could have received.”
Seven Spanish islands near the Atlantic coast of northwestern Africa are having difficulty dealing with an increase in unauthorized migrants, primarily from Mali, Senegal, and Morocco.
For the second consecutive year, the archipelago experienced a record high number of arrivals, with 46,843 migrants reaching the islands in 2024. This figure represents 73% of all illegal migration to Spain based on the most recent information from the Spanish Interior Ministry.
