This is the incredible moment rescuers found a newborn baby on a boat full of migrants in the Atlantic after his mother gave birth during the dangerous journey to the Canary Islands.
One striking image shows a migrant cradling a newborn as others on the boat step back to make room for the baby.
The image was taken on January 6 while the coast guard ship Talia was towing a rubber boat carrying about 64 migrants off the Canary island of Lanzarote, in Spain.
The coast guard shared the incredible moment on social media and wrote: ‘Christmas ends in the Canary Islands with the rescue of a baby born in the middle of a sea crossing.
‘On Three Kings’ Day, the Guardamar Talía rescued a mother who had given birth to her baby aboard the inflatable boat in which she was traveling with a large group of people.’
The woman and her baby were taken to a hospital in Arrecife and are reportedly in “good health.”
“The baby stood out in the middle of everyone, naked, having been born just 10 minutes earlier,” said the captain of the coast guard vessel, Domingo Trujillo. Canary7.
On board the boat were more than a dozen women and four children, all of them of sub-Saharan origin, who prepared for the dangerous journey across the Atlantic in an attempt to reach the Canary Islands.
A striking photograph taken from a coast guard vessel Talia shows a migrant cradling a newborn as others on the boat step back to make room for the baby.
The woman and her baby were taken to a hospital in Arrecife and the coast guard confirmed that they were in ‘good health’.
Spanish coast guards dressed in white suits work on a rescue operation while towing a rubber boat carrying migrants, including a newborn baby, off the Canary island of Lanzarote, Spain, in this image obtained on January 8, 2025. .
The rescue ship was informed around 4 a.m. that there was a pregnant woman in advanced labor who “could give birth at any moment” on a tender in the Atlantic, Trujillo said.
He added that the vessel was 97 miles from the port of Arrecife and that it took the coast guard five hours to reach the boat.
When they finally reached the boat, Trujillo was able to see the naked baby, who he said could only have been born about 10 minutes before the Coast Guard arrived.
The captain said: ‘The baby was crying, which told us that it was alive and there was no problem, and we asked the woman for permission to clean and wash it.
‘We brought the baby to him after one of his traveling companions had already cut the umbilical cord.
“All we did was pick up the child, hand him to the mother and keep him warm during the trip (in the helicopter).”
On board the boat were more than a dozen women and four children, all of them of sub-Saharan origin, who were preparing for the dangerous journey across the Atlantic in an attempt to reach the Canary Islands.
Surprisingly this is not the first time Trujillo has rescued a newborn baby, but he said ‘this time I didn’t have to cut the cord, not like the last time.’
A similar situation occurred in 2020, when the Salvamar Mizar – a unit of which he was the skipper – rescued the occupants of a boat in which a woman had also just given birth off Fuerteventura, forcing Trujillo to cut the umbilical cord.
“While it is still a beautiful and unforgettable experience, cutting it requires a bit of courage, not just for the sake of cutting it, but for the fear of not doing it right,” he said.
‘We take this opportunity to express our admiration for Domingo and the rest of the crew who give their best every day to help thousands of people trying to reach the Canary Islands,’ the Coast Guard said in a statement on social media.
This adds to a record number of 10,457 migrants who died while trying to reach Spain by sea last year, according to Caminando Fronteras.
But the dangerous journey has not deterred migrants hoping to reach Spanish lands: more than 2,000 arrived between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve alone.