Hundreds of migrants arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands, continuing record-breaking influx

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Around 780 new migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands, according to local officials in the Spanish archipelago.

According to authorities, the migrants arrived on the islands of Lanzarote and El Hierro in 10 boats and included 36 minors and 86 women from sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa.

Salvamento Marítimo, the Spanish maritime and rescue agency, said in a post on board near the same area in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The first migrant arrivals of the year come after a record year in which a total of 63,970 migrants arrived irregularly on Spanish shores, an increase of 12.5% ​​compared to 2023. More than 43,000 of them landed in the Canary Islands, a figure well above the from 2006 (31,678), during the so-called “Cayuco crisis”.

According to local media, due to the arrival of hundreds of migrants in a single day, the Lanzarote Emergency Consortium had to offer mattresses to temporarily house the migrants in several tents in the port of Arrecife.

The European Union is looking for solutions

Last year saw a rightward turn in European politics, particularly after the EU elections in June. Therefore, many EU member states have started updating their migration policies, just as migration is high on the European Council’s agenda.

In a letter to EU member states, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested accelerating the return of asylum seekers and opening deportation centers in third countries, following the precedent set by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s agreement with Albania had created.

The President of the European Commission thus joined the demand of 15 member states to transfer asylum seekers to safe third countries.

Meanwhile, the Spanish government last year announced the opening of an emergency center at Ciudad Real airport to process asylum claims from irregular entrants.

Last week, authorities also called for more humanitarian measures for migrant children as the Canary Islands struggles to cope with arrivals.

“Humanitarian aid for minors is urgently needed,” Spanish Minister for Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres said last week.

Video editor • Jerry Fisayo-Bambi