MADRID – The number of migrants arriving in Spain’s Canary Islands by boat from West Africa hit a new annual record in 2024 for the second year in a row, official data showed on Tuesday.
With controls tightening in the Mediterranean, the Canaries route has become a favourite for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa, mostly on overcrowded, barely seaworthy vessels and without sufficient drinking water.
A total of 41 425 migrants entered the seven islands located in the Atlantic off the northwestern coast of Africa between January 1 and November 30, interior ministry data showed.
With one month of 2024 still to go, that is already more than the previous record of 39,910 migrants who arrived in the archipelago of 2.2 million people during all of 2023, a level that smashed the old mark set in 2006.
So far this year, a total of 610 boats carrying migrants arrived in the Canaries, up from 530 during all of 2023.
The regional government of the Canaries says it is overwhelmed, and Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in August went on a tour of West African countries in a bid to boost local efforts to curb illegal migration from Mauritania, Senegal and the Gambia, the main departure points for migrant boats headed to the archipelago.
At their closest point, the islands lie 100 kilometres off the coast of North Africa: the shortest route running between the coastal town of Tarfaya in southern Morocco and the island of Fuerteventura in the Canaries.
But the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands is particularly dangerous because of strong currents. The International Organization for Migration, a UN agency, estimates that close to 5,000 people have died on this route since 2014.
Along with Italy and Greece, Spain is one of the three major European gateways for migrant arrivals.
A total of 56 976 migrants have entered Spain illegally so far this year, a figure that already surpasses the 56 852 that arrived during all of last year. This figure is still lower than the record 64 298 that arrived in 2018, though.
– Nampa/AFP