Migratory pressure continues to grow in Spain with the arrival of more 2,200 immigrants in a week, just before Christmas began. The incessant arrival of cayucos continues to have as its main destination Canary Islandswhere in recent days they have reached close to 1,400according to the data offered by the rescue and emergency teams.
The figures computed up to this Monday place the archipelago at a new annual record after exceeding with these arrivals the 46,100 irregular entries by sea. As of December 15, when the Ministry of the Interior published its latest balance sheet – the next one updated with these latest arrivals will be known this week – the figure was 43,737in a December that has been especially hectic.
And all this in the middle of a political conflict between parties and autonomous communities that has not yet come to fruition in the main solution on the table: that a consensus be produced between PSOE and PP for the reform of article 35 of the immigration law that would allow an equitable distribution of the more than 5,500 unaccompanied foreign minors that it assumes the Government of the Canary Islands alone.
“The enemy has him at home, the president of the Canary Islands sits with his enemy, which is the PP,” said the Secretary of Institutional Policy of the PSOE, Alfonso Gomez de Celisin a press conference this Monday from the socialist headquarters in Seville. “I appeal to Clavijo for a dilemma: to force his partners to reach an agreement for the solidarity distribution or to expel them from the Government,” said the socialist, who has argued that this would be the way to know if “really” Clavijo is on the side of a solution for migrant children or “surrendering to power” of the PP.
A week of uninterrupted transit to the Canary Islands
During the past week, and although there were no arrivals on Monday, only in the early hours of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, the Canary Islands continued to count precarious boats trying to reach its coasts, with a total of eight with at least 387 migrants on board. Six of the canoes made landfall in the port of The Christiansin Tenerife, while the others did so in Gran Canaria and El Hierro.
The next day, the 26th, Maritime Rescue intervened in five rescues in which a total of 274 migrants were counted. Three of these vessels arrived at the port of La Restinga, in El Hierro, while the other two arrived at the port of Los Cristianos, in Tenerife.
On Friday the 27th, 339 people were rescued aboard seven canoes, one of them died during the journey. As for the boats, one was rescued south of Tenerife and the other six in El Hierro. While on Saturday the total number was 658 people aboard a dozen barges: seven arrived in Lanzarote aboard inflatable boats, two arrived in El Hierro and one did the same south of Tenerife.
And on this Sunday, 275 people were rescued in waters near the archipelago aboard four boats, the crew of three of them made landfall at the La Restinga dock, in El Hierro, while the other did so in Arguineguín. , south of Gran Canaria.
In most cases, the migrants told the emergency teams that they came from countries such as Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Morocco or Mauritaniaa country in which most of the departures are concentrated in recent months, and most of the deaths.
The NGO Walking Borderswhich each year monitors with a report the deaths that occur on the different migratory routes to Spain, has estimated at 9,757 people who have lost their lives on the Atlantic Route – the most lethal in the world – trying to reach the Canary Islands in boats. or cayucos during 2024.
The total number of deaths in all of Spain was 10,457, which means that nine out of every 10 people who die trying to reach the Spanish coast did so on the Canary Route. This represents an average in the Canary archipelago of 28 deaths per day in 2024, a year that has once again become the deadliest to date on the islands, even breaking the record of the previous year, 2023, when at least 6,007 migrants perished. .
Finally, this Monday two new irregular vessels arrived during the night from Sunday to Monday to the Canary Islands with 150 more migrantsthe first of them arriving by its own means at Castillo de Romeral, in Gran Canaria, with 65 people on board and a second being intercepted by Salvamento with 85 occupants about eleven miles from Arguineguín.
Arrivals to the Balearic Islands
The number of migrants arriving on Sunday alone to the coasts of the Balearic Islands has risen to 116. Of the total, 17 have reached the coastline in the s’Estufador area of the island of Formentera and another 18 have also arrived at the s’Estufador beach. Likewise, 17 have been rescued at sea southeast of the smallest of the Pitiusas, as well as 21 to the south and 20 to the southeast of the island of Cabrera; On the other hand, another 16 have arrived at the Es Figueral beach in Santa Eulària, in Ibiza. To these we must add the boat that arrived this Monday in Formentera.
With this, the number of migrants of Maghreb origin intercepted in the Balearic Islands until this Monday has risen to 95, while those of sub-Saharan origin arriving in the archipelago remain at 21.
Pateras in Granada and Alicante
To all this we must add two boats that also arrived this Monday in Granada and Alicante. The first of them was a high-power inflatable boat. with which 17 migrants have arrivedincluding two minors, to La Chucha beach, in Motril. The migrants, of North African origin, jumped into the water a few meters from the shore, and immediately afterward the boat fled out to sea.
The National Police has activated a search device, since it is estimated that on the boat thirty people could have traveled. The 17 detainees have been transferred to the port of Motril, where they have been treated by the Red Cross, which has provided them with initial medical and nutritional care.
On the other hand, a boat with eight migrants on board has also arrived at Postiguet beachin Alicante, five of which have been intercepted and the other three have fled.
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