The number of migrants arriving illegally in Spain soared by over 80 percent in 2023, with a record number landing in the Canary Islands, official figures showed Wednesday.
The influx has strained resources in the seven-island Atlantic archipelago and pushed migration to the top of the political agenda in Spain, which along with Italy and Greece is a key entry point for migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
A total of 56,852 migrants entered Spain illegally last year, an increase of 82. 1% through 2022 and a record since 2018, when 64,298 migrants entered the country, according to provisional figures from the Interior Ministry.
Most of them, 39,910, arrived by boat in the Canary Islands after making the dangerous crossing from Africa, 154. 5% more than last year and surpassing the record set in 2006.
With the tightening of controls in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands address has become a popular destination for those fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa, mainly in overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.
The boats, long wooden fishing boats called pirogues, set sail from Morocco, as well as from Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal further south.
The journey from Senegal to the Canaries usually takes a week of difficult upwind sailing of around 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles).
Television newscasts begin with photographs of Red Cross officials and local doctors concerned about newly arrived migrants wrapped in thermal blankets at the ports of the Canary Islands, who have asked for more help from Spain’s central government and the European Union.
The archipelago has struggled to cope with the arrival of more than 4,000 unaccompanied migrant children, many of whom are housed with adults due to a lack of places in shelters for minors.
The Spanish Minister of Immigration, Elma Saiz, said on Tuesday during a stopover in the Canary Islands that the central government is processing a law to distribute these minors in Spain, a reform that she described as “relevant”.
In October, the central government pledged an aid package worth 50 million euros ($54 million) to the archipelago.
Atlantic migration to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world.
More than 7,800 people died or disappeared at sea on their way to the archipelago between 2018 and 2022, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, which helps boats of migrants in distress and the families of the missing.
To carry out checks, smugglers are undertaking longer and more dangerous journeys, sailing west to the Atlantic before heading north towards the Canary Islands, a detour that takes many others to the smaller, westernmost island of El Hierro, which saw an unprecedented surge in arrivals last year. .
Local officials in El Hierro have likened the increasing numbers to conditions on Lampedusa, the small Italian island in the Mediterranean that has long been a transit point for migrants heading for Europe.
Last month, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez welcomed a deal to reform the European Union’s immigration laws, saying the deal is critical to his country’s ability to better manage arrivals and its borders.
The package includes expediting abnormal arrivals, creating detention centers at the borders and accelerating the deportation of rejected asylum seekers.
Given the increase in arrivals, Madrid has intensified its cooperation with Senegal and Mauritania to check that ships do not leave for the Canary Islands.
Senegalese President Macky Sall ordered emergency measures in November to prevent a growing number of migrants from leaving the West African country in small boats bound for Europe.
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