A treacherous journey that has often spelled death for asylum-seekers crossing the Atlantic Ocean ended with the miracle of life this week after a baby girl was born on a migrant boat headed toward Spain’s Canary Islands.
In a photo that captured the moment those on the dinghy were rescued, the newborn lay in her mother’s lap while she rested.
The boat was spotted off the island of Lanzarote on Monday as Spain marked the Epiphany holiday, also known as Three Kings Day, meant to honor the day the three wise men brought gifts to the baby Jesus, rescuers said.
“Christmas ends in the Canary Islands with the rescue of a baby born in the middle of a voyage on the sea,” Salvamento Marítimo, the Spanish government’s maritime rescue agency, said Wednesday on X.
The agency said rescue crews were able to safely rescue those on the dinghy, with the mother and her newborn child airlifted to the eastern Lanzarote city of Arrecife. Local media reported that they were taken to a hospital nearby.
Salvamento Marítimo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the mother and child’s condition Thursday. Reuters reported that the child is a girl, citing regional government and medical authorities.
Domingo Trujillo, captain of the agency’s rescue vessel, told broadcaster TVE that rescuers had been aware that a pregnant woman was on the dinghy.
“The surprise was … a totally naked baby who was born 10, 15 or 20 minutes earlier,” he said, according to Reuters. He said he covered the baby up and patted the baby so it would stop crying.
Alvaro Serrano Perez, commander of the helicopter, told Reuters, “Being Three Kings Day, this was the best gift we could have received.”
The number of migrants coming to the Canary Islands from countries such as Mali, Senegal and Morocco has been rising.
The Canary Islands Route recorded a second consecutive annual high in 2024, its almost 47,000 arrivals accounting for 73% of irregular migration to Spain, according to the country’s Interior Ministry.
Last year, a record 10,457 people died or disappeared trying to reach Spain through unofficial maritime routes, with the journey to the Canary Islands recording the highest death toll, according to the Spanish migration rights group Caminando Fronteras. NBC News was not able to independently verify the data.
Salvamento Marítimo said it was not the first such rescue for Trujillo, the ship’s captain. In 2020, it said, he responded to a similar incident in which a woman had also just given birth on a dinghy crossing the Atlantic.
“We take this opportunity to express our admiration for Domingo and the rest of the crew who every day give their best to assist thousands of people trying to reach the Canary Islands,” the agency said.
