Migration crisis: nearly 1,200 migrants arrive in the Canary Islands over the weekend

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: 14:30 p.m., October 22, 2023

Nearly 1,200 migrants have arrived on the shores of the Canary Islands since Saturday, including aboard a boat carrying a record number of 321 people, rescue services from the Spanish archipelago in the Atlantic off the coast of Morocco said on Sunday. A total of 1,154 migrants reached the islands in different precarious boats between Friday night and Sunday morning, among the upsurge in arrivals in recent weeks, the emergency services announced on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

23,537 migrants since the beginning of the year

On Saturday, a wooden canoe reached El Hierro Island with 321 people on board, a spokeswoman for the emergency services told AFP. There were 280 on 3 October, the previous record for migrants arriving in the Canary Islands in a single boat. Public broadcaster TVE showed footage of the colourful boat arriving at the port on Saturday, crowded with smiling migrants waving around them. According to the latest figures from the Spanish Interior Ministry, the archipelago received 23,537 migrants between January 1 and October 15, almost 80% more than in the same period last year.

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In the first two weeks of October, 8,561 migrants arrived, the highest number since a previous migration crisis in 2006, according to Spanish media. This "resurgence" of arrivals is linked to "destabilisation in the Sahel", Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said during a visit to the Canary Islands this week. The migration route through the Canary Islands has been very busy in recent years due to the tightening of controls in the Mediterranean Sea.