The increase in migration from West Africa to the Canary Islands has been costly. At least 414 people have died or disappeared along this road so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with most drowning or falling for dehydration.
A weekend of migratory shipwrecks off Senegal has left at least 140 people dead, making it the deadliest so far this year, the UN Migration Agency confirmed on Thursday. About 200 passengers boarded the ship from the Senegalese town of Mbour on Saturday, on their way to Spain’s Canary Islands, but the boat soon caught fire and sank off Senegal’s northwest coast near Saint Louis. Fifty-nine passengers were rescued, the IOM said.
The deadliest shipwreck comes when the number of boats trying to reach the Canary Islands off the coast of Senegal has “increased significantly in recent weeks,” the agency said.
The incident followed four other shipwrecks that were registered in the central Mediterranean last week and another in the English Channel. The IOM alone said in September that 26% of the 14 boats carrying 663 migrants leaving the West African country to the Canary Islands were reported to have experienced an incident or shipwreck.
West Africans who desperately want to come to Europe have increasingly chosen to take the Atlantic Road to Spain’s Canary Islands in recent years, as the authorities have squeezed in crossings from Libya. The archipelago is located more than 100 kilometers from the coast of Africa closest, but the route is dangerous.
While the Mediterranean crossings are down this year, arrivals in the Canary Islands across a treacherous part of the Atlantic are almost 700% higher than this year. The IOM estimated that “there have been approximately 11,000 arrivals to the Canary Islands this year compared to 2,557 arrivals during the same period last year. This is still well below peaks seen in 2006 when over 32,000 people arrived.”
The West African region has a dynamic migration pattern and has a long history of intraregional as well as interregional migration flows, according to the IOM. West Africa is the strongest example of immigration flows in sub-Saharan Africa, where 70% of migration movements are mainly linked to employment in the sub-region.
Rescue at sea and the arrival of pointed boats from Africa in Spain’s Canary Islands, where local authorities are already struggling to cope with the pandemic, have strained the rescue service and left hundreds of migrants trapped for several days in a makeshift port camp. The migrants’ condition, many of whom were allowed to sleep on the floor for several days with only a blanket over them, doubles criticism from human rights organizations that see little progress in the government’s handling of the crisis.
The Spanish government has blocked almost all transfers to mainland Spain, claiming that many international borders are closed for deportation or continuation to other European countries. Meanwhile, migrants are being tested for COVID-19 and if anyone is positive, the need for quarantine also prolongs the process, says Red Cross spokesman Jose Rodriguez Verona to Eldiario.es news daily. To make room for the bridge, some migrants have been sent to empty hotels and resorts on the island of Gran Canaria, a tourist magnet affected by the pandemic’s effect on global travel. With more than 300 arrivals per day, the authorities have still not been able to handle the influx properly.
