A 2-year-old boy traveling with his mother toward the Canary Island of Lanzarote was allegedly thrown into the sea from a migrant boat because he would not stop crying, according to an official who oversees the island’s emergency response.
Enrique Espinosa, manager of the Security and Emergencies Consortium of Lanzarote’s island council, or Cabildo, recounted the episode on the Crónicas Radio program “A Buena Hora.”
He mentioned the case of the child when he was asked about a sexual assault of a woman during a boat crossing for which three men were arrested and sent to provisional prison.
According to Espinosa, the child’s case was among the “even more terrible” events emergency services have encountered.
“On a boat, they threw a 2-year-old boy who was crying with his mother into the water,” Espinosa said. He added that passengers’ accounts describe situations “bordering on a lack of humanity.”
However, the fate of the 2-year-old remains an open question. Espinosa did not say when the alleged incident occurred, whether the child was recovered or whether anyone has been arrested in connection with it. The radio program’s host did not ask any follow-up questions about the child.
Espinosa described a situation of growing pressure, stating: “Since June, arrivals have increased due to the Ceuta effect and there is less control on the Moroccan border.”
The remarks came after Spain’s National Police arrested three men, ages 21, 25 and 30, as the alleged perpetrators of a sexual assault during a Sept. 16 crossing bound for Lanzarote. The investigation also located a witness who was traveling on the same boat. The three suspects were later placed in provisional detention.
Police said the woman reported the assault after the vessel reached the port of Arrecife. Coast guard crews rescued 65 survivors from that crossing and recovered three bodies from the water.
The account of the child coincided with several days of heavy boat arrivals on Lanzarote. Espinosa said eight boats had reached the island in just two days, carrying more than 400 migrants, and that emergency workers had treated numerous people for dehydration, hypothermia and injuries from blows.
