NewsRescue
Over the weekend, Spanish officials and rescue personnel said that over 1,000 African migrants arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands, including a crammed boat carrying 321 people.
According to Reuters, the International Red Cross said on Sunday that the wooden boat that arrived on the island of El Hierro set a new record for the number of arrivals on a single vessel, exceeding the previous record of 271 on October 3.
According to the Red Cross, 783 passengers arrived in El Hierro, 98 in Tenerife, and 150 in Gran Canaria, with the majority of those arriving being young adult males, however women and children were also present.
According to an unnamed emergency services spokesperson, all of the arrivals were from Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Saturday arrivals add to the recent rise in illegal immigration, sparking a migration crisis in the Canaries. With an upsurge in attempted crossings from African countries such as Senegal this year, the seven islands of the Atlantic archipelago have become the top destination for migrants attempting to reach Spain. Walking Borders, a refugee help organisation, claimed in July that 951 migrants died in the first half of 2023 while attempting to enter Spain.
According to the most recent figures from the Spanish Interior Ministry, 23,537 migrants arrived in the Canaries between January 1 and October 15. This month’s first two weeks alone witnessed 8,561 arrivals, the largest in a fortnight.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has blamed the spike on the political “destabilization” in the Sahel. Countries in the West African region, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Gabon, Mali, and Niger, are all now under military rule. Sudan, which also witnessed a coup in 2021, has been caught up in an armed conflict since mid-April, killing to 9,000 people and displacing over 5.6 million others, according to the UN.
Spain’s migration minister, Jose Luis Escriva, stated last week that the country would offer the Canary Islands with €50 million ($53 million) in emergency funding to assist local governments in dealing with the “extraordinary migration flow.”
While EU countries such as Italy and Germany have increased border security, the president of the Central African Republic, Faustin Archange Touadera, has accused the West of causing the migration crisis by exploiting Africa’s natural resources and causing economic hardship through slavery and colonialism.
Last month, Touadera told the United Nations General Assembly that African youth are yearning to transfer to the European continent in quest of better chances after Western imperialism left their countries impoverished.
