Spanish maritime rescue officials said that three bodies were discovered in a migrant-filled boat that was retrieved on Saturday off the coast of the Canary Islands.
A representative for the Spanish emergency services told AFP that lifeguards were able to remove 15 people from the boat that was discovered late in the afternoon, about 314 kilometers (195 miles) south of the island of El Hierro.
The survivors were flown to El Hierro by helicopter; some of them were malnourished and hypothermic.
The number of migrants arriving in the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa, is at its highest level since 2006.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to the majority of the undocumented migrants undertaking the treacherous passage.
