MADRID: A total of 30,705 undocumented migrants have reached the Canary Islands in the Atlantic in the first 10 months of this year, nearing a full-year record of 2006, data from Spain’s Interior Ministry showed on Thursday.
The number of people risking the perilous crossing from Africa represented an 111 percent increase from the same period of last year and accounted for the bulk of the total of 43,290 arrivals to Spain by sea, which was about 66 percent higher, the data showed.
The archipelago, which lies around 100 km (60 miles) off Africa’s west coast, had its previous peak in 2006, when 31,678 migrants arrived as other routes to Europe were blocked off.
Arrivals have spiked as milder weather and calmer seas since September usually make attempts of crossing more feasible. A third of all arrivals in the Canaries came to El Hierro, the westernmost and tiniest island.
The archipelago’s seven islands have become the main destination for migrants from Senegal and other African countries trying to reach Spain, fleeing conflict or in search of better economic conditions.
More than half of migrants who have reach the archipelago came from Senegal, official data showed.
The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) counted 313 people who died or went missing so far in 2023 trying to reach the Canary Islands.
Last week, the Spanish government said it would create additional emergency accommodation for some 3,000 migrants in military barracks, hotels and hostels to ease the pressure on the archipelago after local authorities said they felt abandoned by the central government.
Spain’s Canary Islands on course for record migrant arrivals
https://arab.news/rfmgj
Spain’s Canary Islands on course for record migrant arrivals
- The number of people risking the perilous crossing from Africa represented an 111 percent increase from the same period of last year
- Arrivals have spiked as milder weather and calmer seas since September usually make attempts of crossing more feasible
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
