Nearly 1,000 African migrants reach Spain’s Canary Islands over week-end

Close to 1,000 African migrants mostly from Senegal reached the shores of Spain’s autonomous territory of the Canary Islands over the week-end, a new record in the history of the archipelago.

Close to 32,000 migrants have completed the dangerous Atlantic route from the African continent to the Spanish islands off northwestern Africa this year, the Interior Ministry indicated.

The figure more than doubles last year’s count and the previous peak in 2006 when 31,678 individuals made the journey. By the end of September 2023, the Interior Ministry said that just under 15,000 people had arrived in the Islands, a figure similar to that of 2022.

In October, the archipelago saw the arrival of 17,000 men, women, and children, a massive surge compared to previous months. The route to the Canary Islands is among the deadliest for migrants worldwide. In the first half of the year, with far fewer people attempting to cross the sea, the NGO Walking Borders estimated that 778 people lost their lives.

On Saturday November 4, thirteen Senegalese migrants drowned in Mauritanian international waters as they tried to reach the Islands. Some 770 others including men, women and children were saved.