At least 7 are dead and 38 are rescued after a migrant boat was found near Spain’s Canary Islands

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish maritime rescuers and the Red Cross say two bodies have been found in a migrant boat making the risky but increasingly popular voyage from West Africa toward Spain’s Canary Islands. Survivors say five other people died and were put overboard. There were 38 survivors. The migrants had departed Mauritania’s capital 10 days earlier. Spanish authorities have been grappling with a surge in migrants and refugees fleeing poverty, conflict and instability in West Africa heading to the archipelago, which is used as a stepping stone to continental Europe. Spain says nearly 12,000 people landed in the Canaries in the first two months of the year.