The number of “irregular” migrants arriving in Spain’s Canary Islands in January 2024 rose by more than 1,000 per cent compared to a year earlier, Spain’s Interior Ministry said.
In January 2024, 7,270 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands. However, the rate of growth increased further in early February, with more than 1,000 arriving in three days, the Spanish government said on 5 February.
In the wake of a sharp increase in migrants, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Mauritania on 8 February. The EU representatives offered the African country’s government more than 210 million euros to reduce the migrant exodus.
This reflects what some see as von der Leyen’s controversial move on Tunisia in July 2023, when she offered the country’s government €105 million to reduce migration.
MEPs said the deal made the European Union complicit in Tunisia’s alleged mistreatment of sub-Saharan migrants. The European Ombudsman gave the EC until 29 February to explain the human rights “safeguards” in the deal.
Bashir Fatehi, an immigration manager from Britain’s Surrey County Council, told Brussels Signal that crossing the Atlantic to the Canary Islands is “one of the most dangerous migration routes because of unpredictable weather, strong currents and long distances without rescue services.”
Most of the migrants appear to be from Senegal and Mauritania. They usually land on El Hierro, the westernmost territory of the Canary Islands.
Many say political instability and a jobs crisis in Senegal is forcing migrants to leave the country, with traffickers using the route to “dodge” Moroccan and Mauritanian patrols.
