Three migrants were found atop the rudder of “Alithini II” when it arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands after completing a 2700 nautical mile journey. The stowaways were exhibiting symptoms of dehydration and hypothermia and were immediately sent to hospitals for tests and recovery.
The Salvamento Maritimo, the Spanish maritime rescue service, reports that the migrants found on the tanker’s rudder were Nigerian. The migrants sat atop the rudder on the vessel’s journey from Lagos, Nigeria to the Canary Islands in Spain. The tanker had been on the sea for 11 days on this journey.
The migrants were spotted by the Salvamento Maritimo’s patrol boat while making a routine sweep. They were spotted sitting not more than 2 feet above the water.
According to the Spanish media report, there have been at least two other cases of stowaways on a ship’s rudder. In October 2020, three migrants were reported aboard the rudder of a tanker. One month prior to that, Spanish authorities discovered four more migrants atop the rudder of a Norwegian tanker.
Sofía Hernández, the head of Salvamento Maritmio’s Cordination Centre in Las Palmas stated that migrants may seek cover in the box-like structure around the rudder, but are still very vulnerable to bad weather and rough seas. The vertical distance between the water and the hull also changes depending on the weight of the cargo onboard. The rudder section, where the migrants were sitting, could have been completely submerged. The red cross has reported that more than 20,000 migrants have attempted to cross from the West African coastline to the Canary Islands. More than 11,000 of those people perished at sea.
The opinions expressed herein are the author’s and not necessarily those of News2Sea.
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