Last year, Spain accepted 63,970 migrants and refugees who arrived via irregular routes, including 46,843 from the Canary Islands.
The interior ministry said at least 46,843 people reached Spain’s Canary Islands in 2024 via the increasingly dangerous Atlantic migration route.
The European country took in 63,970 migrants who arrived via irregular routes last year, the majority of the Atlantic islands, up from 56,852 in 2023, the ministry said Thursday.
The EU border agency Frontex said the overall number of irregular entries into the EU from January to November 2024 fell by 40%, but on the Atlantic route, migrants from Mali, Senegal and Morocco attempted to enter the EU. It was pointed out that the increase was 19%.
Longstanding conflicts in the Sahel, unemployment and the impact of climate change on rural areas are among the reasons people attempt the crossing.
The Atlantic route, which departs from Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania and Morocco, is also the deadliest in the world.
At least 69 people, including 25 Malians, were killed when a boat heading from West Africa to the Canary Islands capsized off the coast of Morocco last week.
At least 10,457 migrants died or went missing while trying to reach Spain by sea between January 1 and December 5, 2024, according to a report last month by the NGO Caminando Fronteras.
Caminando Fronteras added that this was a 50 percent increase from 2023 and the highest number of casualties since the count began in 2007, citing the use of rickety boats, dangerous waters and rescue rescues. The lack of resources has been cited.
Migrant advocacy group Walking Borders also blamed a lack of action, arbitrary rescues and the criminalization of migrants for the sharp increase in deaths at sea. Aid groups accused European governments of “prioritizing immigration control over the right to life.”
