Spanish maritime rescue service Salvamento Marítimo pulled 245 migrants from three inflatable boats near Lanzarote on Thursday, August 20, 2026, according to a service spokeswoman cited by Spanish news agency EFE.

EFE described the 245-person figure as provisional. The three boats had all departed from the Moroccan coast. Local outlet Canarias7 reported Friday that Moroccan authorities also intercepted two more boats prepared to depart for the Canary Islands before they could leave.

Lanzarote sits in Spain's Canary Islands, an Atlantic archipelago off the coast of West Africa.

What happened during the three rescues?

Salvamento Marítimo split the operation into three separate intercepts:

• 045 people: A first group reached Arrecife, Lanzarote's capital, early Thursday morning after a merchant ship spotted an inflatable boat north of the island.
• 111 people: A Salvamento Marítimo vessel brought this group to Arrecife later that morning from a boat spotted about 114 kilometers from the port.
• 089 people: A third group disembarked at the same port on Thursday afternoon; three passengers went to a hospital with various medical conditions.

The Canary Islands Regional Government's Emergency Services told EFE the first 45 were generally in good health. Spain's rescue service had not released a gender breakdown, an age profile, or a list of nationalities at the time of EFE's report, and a detailed post-disembarkation health update had not yet been issued.

How does this compare to recent arrivals?

The three Thursday boats are the first irregular-migrant vessels to approach the Canary Islands since August 4, when a cayuco carrying more than 130 people reached waters near El Hierro. A cayuco is a large makeshift vessel typical of this Atlantic corridor.

Before that, around 120 migrants landed on Lanzarote on July 8 from an overcrowded dinghy, followed by another group that arrived independently of rescue services.

Why is the Atlantic route getting deadlier?

Spain's Ministry of the Interior counted 14,411 sea arrivals to Spain between January 1 and August 15, 2026 — a 29 percent drop from the same period in 2025. Canary Islands arrivals fell further: 4,808 in the same window, down 60 percent year-on-year.

The decline has not made the journey safer. The death rate on the Atlantic route to the Canaries climbed from 3.3 percent to 4.5 percent this year through July 9, even as the number of arrivals fell sharply.

A spokeswoman for the UN migration agency attributed the higher lethality to departures from further south along the West African coast: "While people used to leave from Morocco or Mauritania, they now start in The Gambia. These are extremely long journeys of more than two weeks, which increases lethality."

The shift pushes voyages further from any rescue network and lengthens time at sea, raising exposure to weather, dehydration and boat failure. The two foiled departures reported Friday morning suggest that Moroccan coastal work now extends to boats still in their territorial waters.

Lanzarote's reception system will now absorb the 245 arrivals while medical screening continues for the three hospitalized passengers. EFE added that detailed health information would follow as care progresses.