Nearly 2,200 migrants reach Spain’s Canary Islands in two days
Spain’s maritime rescue service said Sunday that nearly 2,200 migrants had reached the Canary Islands by boat over two days, extending a surge of arrivals from West Africa to the Spanish archipelago off northwest Africa. Authorities declared a migration emergency on the islands on Tuesday after weeks of rising landings, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa. Spain is due to hold an early general election in two weeks.
Rescuers assisted 1,324 people aboard 14 dinghies, most of whom reached El Hierro, an island of about 12,000 residents. That one-day total approached the route’s rescue record of 1,461 people, set on November 7, 2020. Interior Ministry figures show more than 13,000 of the just over 28,000 people who arrived in Spain by sea from January through the end of October landed in the Canaries, a main gateway for migrants attempting the Atlantic crossing in makeshift boats.
Red Cross staff meet arrivals at the port with dry clothes, food and water and register them, Dácil León, the organization’s emergency coordinator in Tenerife, told public broadcaster RTVE. The crossing is among the world’s deadliest migration routes. Although the islands lie about 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the nearest African coast, many boats take longer paths to evade security forces, journeys of days or weeks, with most departing from Mauritania.
In July, tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco into Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta in two days. More than 140 people died making that journey; most of those who crossed left within days, but up to 15,000 remained.
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