A total of 648 immigrants sailing aboard seven boats have been rescued in Canarian waters since midnight.
According to the Spanish maritime guard, until midday three rescued vessels had been transferred to Lanzarote, two to El Hierro, one to Gran Canaria and another to La Gomera, although the latter was later diverted to the port of Los Cristianos (Tenerife).
In the afternoon, the last one was rescued by the maritime police, a ‘cayuco’ (a boat smaller than a canoe, with a single oar) with 53 people of sub-Saharan origin on board, including three children (one still a baby), which were landed in Arrecife, Lanzarote.
The number of irregular immigrants arriving this year in the Canary Islands, in Spain, has already exceeded 20,000, with a particularly intense rebound since the beginning of October, representing 25% of the year’s total.
Two and a half months before the end of the year, immigrant arrivals to the Canary Islands already exceed the total for the entire year 2022 (15,862) and are close to the data for the years 2020 and 2021, which were more intense, with 23,271 and 22,316 immigrants entering the Spanish archipelago, respectively.
In May, El Hierro received only nine immigrants, but the incessant arrival of canoes with refugees to that port of La Restinga during the summer, especially in the second half of September, made the island the most sought after by immigrants this year. , a scenario This occurs for the first time since the so-called “cayuco crisis” of 2006, when the Canary Route reached its maximum (31,678 people).
In recent years, the migratory route to the Canary Islands has been especially busy due to the tightening of controls in the Mediterranean and shipwrecks are frequent.
The West African route, which crosses the Atlantic Ocean and the western coast of Africa to the Canary Islands, is known to be extremely dangerous due to strong ocean currents.
Non-governmental organizations regularly report deadly shipwrecks – the unofficial death toll of which they claim amounts to dozens or even hundreds of people – in Moroccan, Spanish or international waters.
Even with such dangers, this route has attracted more and more immigrants, especially from sub-Saharan African countries, who wish to reach European territory, the vast majority aboard very precarious and overcrowded boats.
Spain, along with Greece, Italy, Malta and Cyprus, is one of the “front line” countries in terms of arrivals of irregular immigrants to Europe.
Source: TSF
