El Hierro declares emergency after 854 reach Canary Island by boat

El Hierro, the westernmost of Spain's Canary Islands, has declared an emergency over the arrival of migrants and refugees, after 854 people reached the island in seven small boats in one morning.

Al Jazeera reported the declaration by the island's authorities. Its report gave no detail of what the emergency measure allows or how long it will last.

Spain's maritime rescue service, Salvamento Marítimo, brought the seven boats into La Restinga harbour, in the municipality of El Pinar, from about 1am on Friday, according to Euronews. The first, an open motorised fishing boat, was found four miles from the port and carried 134 people. A second docked at 4:45am with 174 aboard, a third 15 minutes later with 166, and the largest at 8:30am with 235. Three more boats arrived through the morning carrying 54, 39 and 52 people, the last at about 12:30pm.

Those on board were of sub-Saharan African origin, Euronews reported, most of them men, with women and minors also among the passengers. Their points of departure and nationalities had not been established. Nine people remained at Nuestra Señora de los Reyes hospital after arriving on the island in recent days with various health problems.

About 350 of those rescued on Friday were taken to Tenerife on the morning ferry, and the authorities planned to move another 350 on the afternoon crossing to relieve pressure on reception facilities on El Hierro. The others were taken to the Temporary Foreign Nationals Reception Centre in San Andrés, in the municipality of Valverde, where the NGO Corazón Naranja-Ebrima Sonko was assisting them and police held them pending transfer to facilities elsewhere. Red Cross emergency teams, the Canary Islands Emergency Service, port security, the Civil Guard and the National Police received them at La Restinga.

Arrivals continued elsewhere in the archipelago. Salvamento Marítimo landed an unconfirmed number of people at Arguineguín on the south coast of Gran Canaria at about 10pm on Thursday, and two groups reached Lanzarote between 9pm on Thursday and 8:30am on Friday: 27 men of North African origin in a small boat, then 61 people.

U.S. News & World Report reported that authorities called the migrant surge to the Canary Islands unsustainable. That report named no officials and gave no figures.