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| - A pregnant mother gave birth during a rescue operation to save 35 migrants off the coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, the emergency services said on Wednesday. The incident occurred on Tuesday evening after Salvamento Maritimo, Spain's coastguard, pulled the migrants off a boat 37 nautical miles off Fuerteventura and were taking them to a port on the island. By this point, the woman was already in labour and the baby "was born as they were being transferred (from the boat) to the quay" the emergency services tweeted, saying medical staff and the Red Cross were on hand at the time. "The newborn and his mother were taken to hospital along with another women," it said. The island is located around 100 kilometres off the northwestern coast of Africa. Figures correct to April 15 show that since the start of the year, some 6,028 migrants reached Spain, a fall of nearly 20 percent compared with the same period last year, when the number stood at 7,516. At the same time, the numbers reaching the Canary Islands by sea has shot up over the same period, jumping from 181 en 2019 to 1,781 this year. Since March 14, Spain has been observing a strict lockdown and has closed its borders to slow the spread of the coronavirus epidemic which has so far killed more than 24,000 people, one of the highest figures in the world. lbx-hmw/bsp
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