Bodies seen on the high seas, shipwrecks at dawn and minors in undignified conditions. 2024 says goodbye as the year in which the most people have crossed the Canary Islands route, but it also carries another tragic record. An average of 26 people a day have died trying to cross the Atlantic, which remains the deadliest migratory passage in the world. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the arrival of the first boat to the Archipelago, a total of 43,737 people have managed to arrive between January 1 and December 15 of this year, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior. Another 9,757 migrants have died.
This August 28 marked three decades since Baijea and Bachir reached the beach of Las Salinas del Carmen, in Fuerteventura. The two young Sahrawis opened the route through which 72.6% of the irregular migration that arrives in Spain now enters. Most of those undertaking the journey are nationals of Mali (11,155 people as of September) and Senegal (5,866). They are followed by Morocco (2,807), Guinea (2,245) and Mauritania (2,197), according to data managed by Frontex and to which this newspaper has had access.
In recent months, the increase in Asian people in the cayucos and boats has been surprising. On October 16, a boat arrived in El Hierro with a majority of Asian migrants. Among them, a complete family of ten Afghan refugees. Political instability, violence and the effects of climate change have pushed people from Pakistan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Syria into the Atlantic, as well as tightening border control in the Mediterranean.
26 deaths a day
The early morning of September 28 left the greatest tragedy recorded on the coasts of the Canary Islands. A canoe capsized just four miles from El Hierro while Salvamento Marítimo tried to rescue its occupants. Only nine bodies could be recovered along with 27 survivors. Among them, two Malian brothers aged 18 and 30. They left together from Nouadhibou, in Mauritania. Food, water and the engine battery ran out on the fourth day, leaving 90 people adrift.
The deaths of migrants have occurred throughout 2024. On December 18, a zodiac sank 70 miles from Lanzarote, leaving four dead and another four missing. Rescue managed to rescue 45 survivors after a frantic night of searching. A month earlier, two fishermen came across the remains of another shipwreck near the island. First, as they told Canarias Ahora, they found a body with a tire tube around the body. Later, they saw another body wearing a life jacket.
Tragedies on the route to the Canary Islands have doubled this year, according to data from the latest report by the Caminando Fronteras collective. Of the documented shipwrecks, 71% correspond to canoes that left Mauritania. Although deaths are increasing, migrant families continue to encounter the same difficulties in locating their loved ones. “The number of victims continues to increase, and the fact of documenting them or preserving their memory carries the risk of persecution and stigmatization,” underlines the Monitoring of the right to life.
In the midst of the chaos of finding a loved one among the dead on the Atlantic route, the work of the entities becomes crucial. In November, two migrants who died near Lanzarote could be identified. The first body corresponded to a 25-year-old woman and the second, to another young Moroccan man. The bodies could be repatriated and dismissed in their countries of origin along with their families.
There are still many people buried without names in the cemeteries of the islands. In El Hierro, some victims of the route have been buried only with a numerical code. Still, they haven’t done it alone. Neighbors of the island have organized themselves through WhatsApp to accompany the bodies.
“We can speak without a shadow of a doubt about second-class dead and missing people, about families affected by institutional racism,” Caminando Fronteras warns in relation to the administrative obstacles that families overcome to report the disappearance of their loved ones. Added to the barriers to reporting is the high number of bodies that sink forever into the ocean. In 2024, 131 vessels have disappeared with all their occupants on board. Meanwhile, communities are trying to organize in their territories of origin by drawing up lists of missing persons and demanding justice and reparation.
sexist violence
Sexual violence, begging and labor slavery are some of the specific violations of rights suffered by women who take the Canary Islands route. According to data from Caminando Fronteras, women account for between 10 and 20% of the RIBs that leave from Morocco and the Sahara to Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. There are also many women who leave their countries and go to Mauritanian cities to take a canoe, escaping war conflicts, female genital mutilation or the impact of climate change in their regions.
“A large number are forced to work in conditions of slavery in Mauritania to be able to pay for the trip, which they perceive as a final liberation from the structural violence that suffocates them,” the document reads. This year, at least 421 women have died trying to reach the islands.
Migrant childhood
The number of children and adolescents who embark on boats to the Canary Islands in search of a future continues to grow. Currently, the autonomous community protects 5,600 minors in conditions that have been questioned even by the regional Executive itself. In June, a complaint presented to the Prosecutor’s Office by two lawyers revealed episodes of physical and verbal violence, dirt in the facilities and distribution of anxiolytics among minors in a resort in Lanzarote that closed shortly after.
In Tenerife, workers and users also reported attacks and overcrowding in two emergency centers located in Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. They both still work. “It is impossible to protect the rights of minors,” the Canary Islands president, Fernando Clavijo, acknowledged after the Conference of Presidents. Beyond the deaths, the collapse of the Archipelago’s protection network, prepared to care for some 2,000 minors, has led to the political debate.
The State and Government of the Canary Islands have proposed modifying article 35 of the Immigration Law. This mechanism would allow the State to intervene and establish a mandatory distribution of young people throughout the autonomous communities at times of high intensity of arrivals at the country’s southern border. The legal reform was defeated in Congress by Junts and the PP, which governs with the Canarian Coalition on the islands.
The regional Executive has chosen to install tents on the docks so that minors can spend a few days until they enter the centers. He also tried to implement a protocol that slowed down his entry into the protection system and which was overturned by Justice after warnings from the Prosecutor’s Office. The Public Ministry warned that, if the protocol was executed, the minors would be left in a situation of helplessness.
The voluntary reception of young people in other parts of the Peninsula has also failed. The autonomies have not received the number of young people that each year they commit to serving in solidarity. Along these lines, different organizations have warned that the tug-of-war between parties and governments regarding the reception of minors consolidates “the criminalizing narrative” and contributes to presenting immigration as a threat.
“The year 2024 has been marked by the marketing of migrant children between the different administrations of the Spanish State that should protect them,” says Caminando Fronteras. The report highlights that considering minors as migrants rather than as children is a common practice that turns children and adolescents into a “currency” and places them “at the center of hate speech.”
The lack of permanent places in the centers has led the Canary Islands Government this year to change educational centers for several migrant students. The departure of a 1st year ESO boy without prior notice led his classmates from IES Sabino Berthelot, in Tenerife, to write a letter that spread throughout the country. “At least let us say a proper goodbye to our friend,” they asked. “These are people, not goods,” the children concluded.
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