3 stowaways survive 11 days on rudder of ship traveling from Nigeria to Spain’s Canary Islands

Three stowaways have successfully travelled from Nigeria to Canary Islands, Spain, after hiding in the rudder of a Malta-flagged ship for eleven days.

The illegal migrants were rescued by Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service after they were found perched on the Alithini II oil tanker at the Las Palmas port.

The men had symptoms of dehydration and hypothermia and were transferred to hospitals on the island for urgent medical intervention, Spain’s Salvamento Marítimo said.

According to the MarineTraffic website which tracks ships, the vessel left Lagos on November 17 and sailed for eleven days before arriving in Las Palmas on Monday, November 28.

Though extremely dangerous, it’s not the first time stowaways have been found travelling on the rudder of commercial ships to the Canary Islands.

In 2021, a 14-year-old Nigerian boy was interviewed by Spain’s El Pais newspaper after he survived 14 days on the rudder of a ship that travelled from Lagos.

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