Young African Migrants Overwhelming Canary Islands
21st June 2024
The Canary Islands is facing an unprecedented migration crisis, with the number of illegal migrants set to trump the previous record from last year. In the first five and a half months of this year, almost 19,000 people from Western Africa arrived on the Spanish islands by sea, an increase of 221% compared to the same period in 2023. Last year’s number of migrants—39,900—was a record in itself, an increase of 155% compared to 2022, and the record is likely to be broken again.
According to a recent report by Frontex, the EU’s Border and Coast Guard Agency, there is an increased demand from sub-Saharan migrants seeking to enter the European Union via the Canary Islands, and human smugglers are taking advantage of the situation. Most of the boats carrying the migrants depart from Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal.
For the small Spanish island group that lies 100 kilometres to the west of Morocco and Western Sahara, with a population of 2.2 million, it is an unbearable situation, as it is finding it difficult to cope with the influx of people. “We don’t have enough resources to take care of them,” says Canarian President Fernando Clavijo.