This is devastating. Every life lost on these crossings is a moral failure — not an unfortunate inevitability. The Atlantic route has been allowed to become a graveyard because EU and national policies prioritize deterrence and externalisation over safe, legal pathways, rescue capacity and humane asylum processing. Criminalising NGOs, outsourcing border control to unstable countries, and slashing avenues for regular migration only pushes desperate people into the hands of smugglers and into lethal journeys. We need immediate action: an independent investigation and full transparency about what happened and who was on that boat; urgent medical, legal and psychosocial support for survivors; and a rapid expansion of search-and-rescue resources around the Canaries. Longer term, Europe must finally overhaul its asylum system, open safe routes (humanitarian visas, family reunification, resettlement), stop pushbacks, and address the root causes — including unfair trade, climate impacts and geopolitical interventions — that drive so many to risk everything. Above all, we must respond with humanity and accountability, not silence or blame.