PALMA — At least one person has died and 19 others injured after a boat carrying migrants from North Africa was found south of the Spanish island of Mallorca after drifting at sea for almost a week.

Healthcare workers gave first aid to at least 18 people, with three transferred to nearby hospitals in serious condition.

The drifting vessel was located more than four kilometres off Mallorca’s southern coast after a private boat rescued a sub-Saharan immigrant from the sea who alerted authorities to the boat he had been travelling in.

An air and sea operation was launched and the vessel was found with 11 migrants still on board and one body.

A further seven people were rescued from the sea in the vicinity of the shipwreck.

Last week, officials in the Balearic Islands said that more than 30 boats carrying around 600 migrants had arrived in the archipelago, an uptick which suggests the growing popularity of the islands as an entry point to Europe as authorities clamp down on other routes.

Irregular migration to Spain has fallen overall this year, but arrivals to the Balearics is up by 170% for the first six months of this year, according to official data.

Authorities say the number of boats, mostly coming from Algeria, has more than doubled.

A total of 4,323 migrants arrived in the Balearic Islands between 1-15 August, a 77% increase on the same period last year, the Interior Ministry said.

Another popular entry point to Europe is Spain's Canary Islands, located off Africa's western coast.

It's also one of the world’s most dangerous migrant routes with the Spanish migrants' rights group Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) saying in a January report that more than 10,000 people had died last year trying to reach the archipelago.

But a record number of migrants were more lucky, with authorities in the Canary Islands saying more than 43,000 people had arrived there in 2024. — Euronews