Spanish police arrest 19 after survivors say smugglers threw scores of migrants overboard during Atlantic crossing

Spanish National Police in Gran Canaria said Wednesday they have arrested 19 people on suspicion of murder, torture and people trafficking after survivors of an overcrowded wooden cayuco told investigators that dozens of migrants were beaten and thrown into the Atlantic during an 11‑day crossing from West Africa.

The vessel was located adrift off the coast of Gran Canaria and 248 migrants aboard were taken to Arguineguín on Aug. 25 after the Spanish coastguard Guardamar Urania rescued the boat near Dakhla, roughly 265 miles from the Canary Islands. Police said one person later died in hospital.

Authorities said witness testimony indicates the cayuco had originally left Senegal with about 300 people and that investigators estimate the disappearance or deaths of more than 50 migrants during the journey. According to police statements, survivors reported that some of the people in charge of the boat accused fellow migrants of being "witches" when the craft experienced engine failure, shortages of food and bad weather, and that those accused were subjected to beatings, shootings and, in several cases, thrown into the sea.

"National Police officers have arrested 19 people on suspicion of murders and torture on board a cayuco rescued on August 24," a spokesman for Spain's National Police in Gran Canaria said. He added that several of those detained not only piloted the cayuco but allegedly assaulted dozens of passengers, in some cases refusing to help people who fell into the water.

A duty judge at a court in San Bartolomé de Tirajana questioned the suspects and ordered them remanded in custody after they appeared in court, the police said. Four survivors have been designated by authorities as protected witnesses. Police said it was not disclosed whether the detainees answered questions or had invoked the right to remain silent.

Investigators are probing alleged crimes including human trafficking, homicide, wounding and torture. The probe relies heavily on the accounts of survivors brought ashore, and officials have described the disappearance figures as estimates based on testimony and the number of people the vessel reportedly carried when it departed Senegal.

Spanish authorities said Moroccan officials had been unable to assist before the Spanish coastguard located the vessel. The police statement described the cayuco as a wooden boat approximately 65 feet long.

The case comes amid heightened attention to the growing number of perilous sea crossings to Europe and past deadly incidents. Spanish police in June opened an inquiry after the bodies of five migrants were found in the sea off the Balearic Islands with hands and feet bound; families later said those men had been shackled in a death ritual after perishing from starvation on a different vessel. In May, a separate rescue by the Spanish coastguard brought 16 dehydrated male survivors to safety near Alicante after their boat left Algeria and was left adrift; aid workers reported harrowing conditions among those rescued.

Humanitarian organizations and governments have repeatedly warned that irregular maritime migration along Atlantic and Mediterranean routes is highly dangerous, with overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels and unscrupulous smugglers contributing to deaths at sea. Spanish police said their current investigation remains active as they seek to corroborate testimony, identify missing people and determine the full circumstances that led to the alleged killings.

The detainees face preliminary inquiries while authorities continue to gather statements from survivors and forensic evidence. Spanish judicial and law enforcement officials did not immediately release the nationalities of those remanded beyond earlier reports that some suspects were Senegalese and Gambian nationals.