MADRID (AFP) – A record 46,843 migrants reached Spain’s Canary Islands illegally in 2024 via the increasingly deadly Atlantic route, the second consecutive year of unprecedented arrival numbers, official data showed.
The landmark came as the European country received 63,970 irregular migrants last year, the vast majority in the Atlantic archipelago, up from 56,852 in 2023, the Interior Ministry said.
Spain has moved to the forefront of the European Union’s (EU) migration crisis as tighter controls in the Mediterranean push more migrants to attempt the perilous trip from west Africa to the Canaries.
EU border agency Frontex has said irregular crossings into the bloc from January to November 2024 fell 40 per cent overall. But they grew 19 per cent on the Atlantic route, with Mali, Senegal and Morocco the most common nationalities.
Thursday’s figures confirmed data published in December that showed the record for annual migrant arrivals by boat in the Canaries had been broken for the second year running by November.
Last year’s arrivals surpassed the 39,910 migrants who reached the islands off northwestern Africa by sea in 2023, a level that had smashed the previous record from 2006.
The national figure for 2024 fell short of the all-time record of 64,298 arrivals set in 2018 but exceeded the 56,852 migrants who reached Spain illegally in 2023.
A report last week by non-governmental organisation Caminando Fronteras said at least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea from January 1 to December 5, 2024.
Caminando Fronteras said it was a 50-per-cent increase on 2023 and the highest toll since its tallies began in 2007, attributing it to the use of ramshackle boats, dangerous waters and a lack of resources for rescues.
“The loss of a single life is a cause for sadness and we regret every one of them,” the Migration Ministry told AFP in reaction to the report.
“This government maintains a transversal policy that prioritises human rights and works in collaboration with other ministries and countries of origin and transit to promote regular and safe migration.”
Local authorities in the Canaries said they are overwhelmed by the waves of arrivals. Spain’s political parties however have failed to agree a plan to distribute thousands of unaccompanied minors nationwide to ease the burden.
Government minister Angel Victor Torres criticised the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) for the impasse.
