Today's Edition
Madrid (ALETIHAD)
More than 1,200 African migrants have reached Spain’s Canary Islands this weekend, with one vessel bringing a single-boat record of 321 people, authorities said on Sunday.
A total of 1,235 migrants had reached the Spanish islands off the western African coast between Friday night and Sunday morning, the authorities said on X, formerly Twitter, adding to a recent spike in arrivals.
An emergency services spokesman said that all of the arrivals hailed from sub-Saharan Africa.
Saturday saw 321 people reach the island of El Hierro aboard one vessel, a rescue services spokesperson told AFP, surpassing the previous record for a single boat of 280 on October 3.
Spanish broadcaster TVE showed images of a multicoloured vessel crammed with smiling and waving passengers reaching the port.
Latest data from Spain’s Interior Ministry shows that 23,537 migrants reached the Canaries between January 1 and October 15.
The first fortnight of this month alone saw 8,561 arrivals - a record for a fortnight since the previous migration crisis in 2006.
During a visit to the archipelago, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska last week said that the spike in numbers resulted from political “destabilisation in the Sahel region”.
The Canaries route has been favoured in recent years, with controls having been tightened in the Mediterranean.
However, many barely seaworthy vessels have not made it to shore as thousands of migrants risk their lives on what is a long and dangerous crossing - 100 kilometres (60 miles) away. Others try even riskier routes from Senegal and even Gambia, around 1,000 kilometres away.
