The Spanish Coast Guard rescued a baby who was born on a dinghy carrying migrants Canary Islandsthe authorities announced on Wednesday.

The newborn was safely pulled out with its mother on Monday, the Coast Guard said message on social networks.

They were the last to make the crossing where thousands of people drowned as migrants tried to reach the Atlantic archipelago from Africa.

“Christmas ended in the Canaries with the rescue of a baby born during a sea crossing,” the coastguard said. “Our crews in the Canary Islands have started the year in an intense way.”

A Coast Guard vessel “rescued a mother who gave birth in a dinghy in which she was traveling with a large group of people.” Reuters news agency reported that the newborn is a girl.

The two were taken by helicopter to Arrecife on the island of Lanzarote, it added.

Domingo Trujillo, captain of the rescue agency, told Spanish television station EFE that a coast guard ship rescued a total of 60 people, including 14 women and four children.

– The baby was crying, which indicated to us that it was alive and that there were no problems, so we asked the woman for permission to take it off and clean it – he said. “The umbilical cord had already been cut by one of her companions. The only thing we did was to examine the child, give it to the mother, and wrap them up for the journey.”

Trujillo told Reuters that the rescue teams were exhausted but motivated by their mission.

“Almost every night we leave at dawn and come back late,” he told Reuters. “This case is very positive, because it was with a newborn, but in all the services we do, even if we are tired, we know that we are helping people in need.”

A record 46,843 undocumented migrants reached the Canary Islands in 2024 via the Atlantic route, official data showed this month.

Last June, a cruiser saved 68 people sailing on a fishing boat near the Canary Islands. A cruise ship passenger from Vancouver, Canada, told CBS News that it took several hours to rescue the migrants on board and that about five people on board were dead.