A record number of migrants and refugees will arrive in the Canary Islands by sea in 2024 | Immigration news

Spain received 63,970 migrants and refugees who arrived through irregular routes last year, including 46,843 people in the Canary Islands.

At least 46,843 people arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands in 2024 via the increasingly deadly Atlantic migration route, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said on Thursday that the European country received 63,970 migrants who arrived via irregular routes last year, the vast majority of them in the Atlantic archipelago, up from 56,852 in 2023.

The EU border agency Frontex noted that irregular crossings into the bloc from January to November 2024 fell by 40 percent overall, but increased by 19 percent on the Atlantic route, with people from Mali, Senegal and Morocco trying to cross.

Years of conflict in the Sahel, unemployment and the impact of climate change on farming communities are among the reasons people are trying to do this. crossing.

The Atlantic Route, which includes starting points in Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania and Morocco, is also the deadliest in the world.

Last week, at least 69 people were killed, including 25 Malians. He died After a boat heading from West Africa to the Canary Islands capsized off the coast of Morocco.

A report by the NGO Caminando Frontras last month said that at least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea from January 1 to December 5, 2024.

Caminando Frontras added that this is a 50 percent increase from 2023 and is the highest toll since the census began in 2007, and attributed this to the use of dilapidated boats, dangerous waters and a lack of resources for rescue operations.

Migrant aid organization Walking Borders also blamed a lack of action, arbitrary rescues and the criminalization of migrants for the high number of deaths at sea. The relief organization accused European governments of “prioritizing immigration control over the right to life.”