Seventeen migrants are feared to have died while attempting to reach Spain’s Balearic Islands after spending 15 days at sea, Spanish authorities said on Tuesday, citing accounts from two survivors rescued near Mallorca.
The survivors, both from North African countries, were suffering from malnutrition and dehydration and were taken to hospital, according to the Spanish government’s regional office.
They told authorities that 19 people had originally been aboard the vessel. Officials said the reported deaths had not yet been independently confirmed.
A rescue helicopter was deployed to search waters near where the boat was located, while a maritime alert was issued to vessels operating in the area.
The craft was found around 13 nautical miles southwest of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea.
In a separate incident later on Tuesday, Spanish authorities rescued 17 migrants and recovered two bodies from another vessel near Mallorca.
Officials believe the second boat had been carrying around 30 people. Search operations for the remaining passengers continued late into the evening.
The migration route from Algeria to Spain’s Balearic Islands was the fastest-growing irregular entry route into the European Union during the first half of 2026, according to EU border agency Frontex, despite an overall decline in arrivals to the bloc.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said total migrant arrivals to the country had fallen by nearly 25%.
Frontex previously reported that smuggling networks were increasingly shifting operations from Morocco to Algeria, where controls were perceived to be less stringent, and were using faster boats for the Mediterranean crossing.
Spain has sought to strengthen cooperation with Algeria on migration control over the past year.