MADRID: The number of migrants arriving in Spain’s Canary Islands by boat from West Africa hit a new annual record in 2024 for the second year in a row, official data showed on Tuesday.
With controls tightening in the Mediterranean, the Canaries route has become a favorite for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa, mostly on overcrowded, barely seaworthy vessels and without sufficient drinking water.
A total of 41,425 migrants entered the seven islands located in the Atlantic off the northwestern coast of Africa between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, Interior Ministry data showed.
With one month of 2024 still to go, that is already more than the previous record of 39,910 migrants who arrived in the archipelago of 2.2 million people during all of 2023, a level that smashed the old mark set in 2006.
So far this year, a total of 610 boats carrying migrants have managed to arrive in the Canaries, up from 530 during all of 2023.
The regional government of the Canaries says it is overwhelmed, and Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in August went on a tour of West African countries in a bid to boost local efforts to curb illegal migration from Mauritania, Senegal and the Gambia, the main departure points for migrant boats headed to the archipelago.