Migrants arrive in Canary Islands on tanker’s rudder

The Spanish coastguard rescued three migrants who stowed away on a tanker that arrived in the Canary Islands from Nigeria by balancing on its rudder just above the waterline.

In a photograph on Twitter, the stowaways were shown perched on the rudder of an oil and chemical tanker. The Malteseflagged Alithini II arrived in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria on Monday after an 11-day voyage, according to the Marine Traffic website.

The migrants were taken into the port and attended to by health services for dehydration and hypothermia, the coastguard said on Twitter.

Spanish data shows migration by sea to the archipelago jumped 51% in the first five months of the year compared with a year earlier.