(Washington Insider Magazine) -According to Spanish authorities, three Spanish migrants were discovered on the rudder of a ship after completing an 11 days journey from Nigeria.
The men were found sitting on the rudder on the oil tanker’s stern with their feet hanging less than a meter from the water.
The Spanish ship migrants were taken to a hospital in Gran Canaria, where the ship was destined and treated for mild dehydration.
No one knows if they were located on the rudder throughout the entirety of the journey. They will be sent home, per the stowaway regulations in the region.
According to maritime tracking websites, the Maltese-flagged Athina traveled to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, on a 2700 nautical miles journey from Lagos, Nigeria.
The Spanish migrant stowaways were treated by medics at the docks before being taken to hospital, reported by the Spanish news agency EFE.
Stowaways found on ship rudders (which are large blades under the ship and used for steering the ship) are not new.
Spanish migrants not the first to attempt rudder travel
A fourteen-year-old Spanish migrant in 2020 who made a similar dangerous journey from Nigeria to Gran Canaria with a few other men, told the El Pais newspaper that they spent the entire journey on an oil tanker, taking turns to sleep in a hole above the rudder and drinking saltwater.
He, too, was hospitalized on arrival.
In another incident in 2020, four other Spanish migrants were found on the rudder of a Norwegian oil tanker called the Champion Pula after traveling from Lagos to Las Palmas. However, reports originally stated that the men were hiding in a room throughout the whole 10 days journey at sea.
The number of Spanish migrants making the dangerous journey on boats from West Africa to the Spanish-owned Gran Canary Islands has increased significantly in recent years.
Despite the journeys being long, hazardous and deadly, it has not slowed down the number of Spanish ship stowaways who are predominantly economic migrants looking for a better life.
The United Nations organization for migration (IOM), recorded over a thousand deaths of people who took the ultimate risk on this perilous and dangerous journey.
