The migratory surge that the Canary Islands have been experiencing since the end of June and which this week recorded the highest peak of the year, ended this Friday with a new annual record in the arrival of people, with more than 1,000 in 13 cayucos in 24 hours.
The figure is one of the highest in the historical series but it is not the maximum. In fact, on October 6, 2020, in the year of Covid, 1,461 people arrived on the islands in a single day.
Yesterday again, El Hierro was the main destination for the canoes leaving Senegal. Six boats with 600 people headed to Meridian Island, bringing the arrivals to 2,000 in four days. The same Thursday, the El Hierro Town Council approved an institutional declaration in which it demanded means to be able to care for these people. The chamber institution recognized itself as overwhelmed to be able to respond to this massive influx of people, which has forced the opening of the old monastery of La Frontera, where portable beds have been installed. The agile referrals to other centers on the islands are what is relieving El Hierro, although complicated scenes are being experienced at the foot of the dock.
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Tenerife has also been the destination of six other boats that arrived with about 300 people. One of them was escorted to the port of Los Cristianos, where reality once again left one of those images that mark: bathers next to a boat full of people looking for a future.
The arrival will continue in the coming days
In just six days this month, nearly 3,000 people have arrived and everything indicates that the arrival of canoes will continue in the coming days due to the situation of the sea and the weather. If this fortnight continues, it is expected to be historic. The all-time high in the Canary Islands in two weeks is 5,000 people and almost 3,000 have already arrived in six days.
The State Security Forces have been warning for weeks of a possible massive departure of boats from the coasts of Senegal and this has come true. Different NGOs warn that there are hundreds of people on the coasts of Senegal waiting for their moment to embark on the adventure. The European Union maintains an agreement with this country by which Senegal is financed in exchange for controlling its borders. These days the Canary Islands are once again experiencing situations as difficult as those of 2006, when the so-called ‘cayuco crisis’ occurred, which resulted in a historical record of 31,678 arrivals, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior. On that occasion, Senegal was again the main place of departure for the boats.
So far this year, 18,000 immigrants have arrived in the Canary Islands, a figure that far exceeds all those who arrived in 2022, when they totaled 15,682. The migration expert, Txema Santana, insists that the problem with immigration in the Canary Islands is that it continues to be treated as a temporary problem when it is structural. “We forget that we live immersed in a humanitarian emergency with more than 6,000 dead and that it overflows on many occasions,” he says.
Get a visa
This Friday, the Ombudsman urged the Government to reinforce the Spanish consulate in Dakar (Senegal) so that it can meet the existing demand for visas, which is increasingly high, and to reduce the current waiting periods, of up to 17 months.
The Ombudsman has formally addressed the Undersecretariat of Foreign Affairs after receiving numerous complaints about the functioning of the aforementioned consulate, which is also in charge of Gambia, and verifying that the personal and material resources of the center have not increased after having reported the problem. to the Ministry.
The Ombudsman has received complaints about delays in the processing of visas for family reunification of minors and also of Spanish nationality files for family members; and Foreign Affairs has acknowledged that, for example, from the time an appointment is requested for the first of these visas until the appearance is made, 17 months pass. In fact, one of the latest complaints received states that an appointment has been assigned to a minor for the year 2025, a deadline that he calls “unacceptable.” The Ombudsman recalls that Senegalese immigration, along with Moroccan immigration, was one of the first African communities to settle in Spain. The vast majority are long-term residents and more and more are acquiring Spanish nationality, which increases the consulate’s workload.
According to the Secretary of State for Migration, at the end of 2022, 76,024 Senegalese were legally residing in Spain, the second African community after the Moroccan; and almost 55,000 were long-term residents. Added to them are 10,000 new Spaniards of Senegalese origin who have obtained nationality in the last ten years. There are also 23,000 Gambians residing in Spain, 14,000 of them with permanent permits, and more than 5,000 have acquired nationality in the last decade.
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