At the beginning of the week, Fernando Clavijo raised the alarm. “It cannot go on like this. We have long since exceeded our limits and capacities,” said the regional president of the Canary Islands. He was referring to the latest wave of refugees that is currently sweeping over the Spanish holiday islands off the west coast of Africa. The situation is “dramatic,” said Clavijo.
In fact, the number of illegal migrants in the Canary Islands has increased dramatically over the course of the year. Between January 1 and August 15, a total of 22,304 illegal boat refugees reached the archipelago in the Atlantic. This is an increase of 126 percent compared to the same period last year, confirmed the Spanish Interior Ministry.
Most of the African boat refugees now start the dangerous sea refugee route across the Atlantic from more southern countries such as Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania, after the European Union was able to reach a new agreement with Morocco on improved control of coastal waters.
Many die of thirst or drown on the way
With terrible consequences: “The sea route is over 1000 kilometers long and therefore more dangerous than from the Moroccan coast,” explains Helena Maleno from the Spanish refugee aid organization Caminando Fronteras in an interview with the APA. Many die of thirst or drown on the way. If the boats, which always come from the south, miss the easternmost islands of El Hierro and La Palma, the only thing waiting for the refugees is the open Atlantic and certain death, says Maleno.
Only twelve days ago, an African refugee boat from Mauritania with fourteen skeletons was discovered on a beach in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, but missed the Canary Islands. “It is the most dangerous sea refugee route in the world,” Maleno explains. Experts assume that around 25 percent of boat refugees die on the way from West Africa to the Canary Islands.
Decreasing winds
If we can believe the latest news from the Spanish Interior Ministry and assume this percentage, there could be a humanitarian catastrophe by the end of the year. Madrid estimates that up to 300,000 refugees from the neighboring crisis-ridden state of Mali are currently waiting in Mauritania to set off in a boat to the Canary Islands. Other refugees want to set off from Senegal and Gambia. The winds and waves, which usually decrease between September and November, are likely to multiply the number of migrant boats.
In order to stop the influx of refugees from West African countries, Spain’s socialist head of government Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) will travel to Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal next week for crisis talks. Before that, however, he wants to meet with the Canary Islands regional president Clavijo on the island of La Palma on Friday and get his own impression of the situation on site.
Worrying increase in unaccompanied minors
Fernando Clavijo will draw the attention of the Spanish head of government to the worrying increase in unaccompanied minors on refugee boats. There are already 5,200 underage migrants on the islands. The reception centers actually only have space for 2,000 minors. And by the end of the year, the regional government expects that up to 7,000 more minors will try to reach the Spanish holiday islands and thus Europe from the coasts of West Africa.
The regional head of the Canary Islands called on both the central government and the other Spanish regions on the mainland to take in unaccompanied minor refugees from the Canary Islands. But this is where party-political strategies come into play. Spain’s conservative-governed regions and the conservative opposition leader Alberto Núnez Feijóo (PP) are using the emergency situation in the Canary Islands to harshly criticize the migration policy of the socialist minority government.
Right-wing populist Vox party
Above all, the right-wing populist Vox party is using the rising migration figures as an opportunity to put political pressure on Sánchez’s socialists. It is an opportune moment: According to the latest survey by the state opinion research institute CIS in June, illegal migration is an increasingly serious problem for most Spaniards and is now ranked 9th.
The two new right-wing parties, Alianca Catalana and “Se acabó la fiesta” (The party is over), were able to assert their xenophobic propaganda in the last European elections in June. With 31,155 refugees nationwide, Spain has seen an increase in illegal migrants of 66 percent over the course of the year compared to 2023. In addition to the Canary Islands, the situation is particularly tense in the Spanish African exclave of Ceuta. Moroccan youths in particular have been trying for days to reach the Spanish city on the Moroccan coast. Many even swim at night. Here the number of illegal migrants rose by 173 percent compared to the previous year.
