This is the incredible moment rescuers found a newborn baby on a packed migrant boat in the Atlantic after the mother gave birth during the treacherous crossing to the Canary Islands.
An astonishing picture taken from a coastguard boat Talia shows a migrant cradling a newborn as others on the dinghy back away to make space for the baby.
The image was taken on January 6 while the Talia towed a rubber boat carrying about 64 migrants off the island off the Canary Island of Lanzarote, in Spain.
The coastguard shared the incredible moment on social media, writing: ‘Christmas ends in the Canary Islands with the rescue of a baby born in the middle of a sea crossing.
‘On Three Kings’ Day, the Guardamar Talia rescued a mother who had given birth to her baby on board the inflatable boat in which she was traveling with a large group of people.’
The woman and her baby were transferred to a hospital in Arrecife. The coastguard said they were in ‘good health’.
‘The baby stood out in the middle of everyone, naked, having been born just 10 minutes before,’ the captain of the coastguard boat, Domingo Trujillo, told Canarias7.
On board the dinghy were more than a dozen woman and four children, reportedly all of sub-Saharan origin, who braced the treacherous journey over the Atlantic in a bid to reach the Canary Islands.
An astonishing picture taken from a coastguard boat Talia shows a migrant cradling a newborn as others on the dinghy back away to make space for the baby
Spanish coast guards wearing white suits work on a rescue operation as they tow a rubber boat carrying migrants, including a newborn baby, off the island off the Canary Island of Lanzarote, in Spain, in this handout picture obtained on January 8, 2025
On board the dinghy were more than a dozen woman and four children, reportedly all of sub-Saharan origin, who braced the treacherous journey over the Atlantic in a bid to reach the Canary Islands
‘The Rescue Coordination Centre in Las Palmas called us at 4:00 in the morning, I think, and informed us that there was a pregnant woman in the boat in an advanced stage of pregnancy, who could give birth at any moment,’ Trujillo said.
He added: ‘We set out prepared and going over what we would have to do if this were the case. We reached them at around 9:00 in the morning.
‘They were 97 miles from Arrecife, it took us five hours to get there.’
When they finally reached the boat, Trujillo could see the naked baby, which he said could have only been born about 10 to 15 minutes before the coastguard’s arrival.
The captain said: ‘The baby was crying, which told us that he was alive and there were no problems, and we asked the woman for permission to clean and wash him.
‘We put the baby with her, after the umbilical cord had already been cut by one of her fellow travellers. All we did was hold the child, give him to the mother and keep them warm for the trip [in the helicopter].’
Surprisingly this is not the first time Trujillo rescued a newborn baby, but he said that ‘this time I didn’t have to cut the cord, not like last time’.
He experienced a similar situation in 2020, when the Salvamar Mizar – a unit in which he was the skipper – rescued the occupants of a boat off Fuerteventura in which a woman had also just given birth.
‘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 coastguard said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
