It said the survivors told rescuers that the boat had been drifting for 15 days and that the 17 other people who were travelling with them had died. “There is no other record of these other people, other than the testimony of the occupants,” a spokeswoman for the government representative told AFP. “The most heartless face of the migration crisis strikes the Balearic Islands again,” regional president Marga Prohens wrote on X. She called on the central government to draw up a “specific plan to address the migration emergency facing the Balearic Islands”. It has become an increasingly used route for migrants departing from north Africa, particularly Algeria, in attempts to reach Europe.