Baby boy born on crowded small boat as mother lies on floor among 60 migrants rescued from rubber dinghy

While Spain celebrated Epiphany on Monday, the crew of Guardamar Talia rescue craft saved the group of migrants adrift in a small dinghy headed for the Canary Islands.

The photo shows the newborn and his mother surrounded by men and women crammed onto the board - so packed that people were sitting on its sides.

Speaking to Spanish paper El Dia, captain Domingo Trujillo said they were alerted at 4am of a vessel carrying a pregnant woman about to give birth.

“She [the pregnant woman] was about to give birth any minute, so we set out prepared for what could happen.”

The Captain had previously carried out a rescue operation involving a baby born in a boat.

Trujillo joked: “This time at least I didn’t have to cut the umbilical cord,” referencing the baby he saved over four years ago.

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The mother and baby were reportedly taken by helicopter and ambulance to the Hospital Insular of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

Over 61,000 people reached Spain via sea last year, according to the Interior Ministry.

Around 46,000 of those ended up in the Canary islands, around 59 miles from Morocco.

They included thousands of unaccompanied minors.

The International Organisation for Migration attributes at least 5,000 deaths to migration journeys since it began monitoring statistics in 2014.

However, Spanish migration rights group Caminando Fronteras said the real death toll is higher, reaching over 10,000 people last year alone.