(Madrid) Two hundred and eighty migrants, all alive, arrived Tuesday aboard a single boat on an island in the Spanish Canary archipelago, taking one of the most dangerous migratory routes in the world, said indicated sea rescue.
Among these people, 278 were men and ten were minors who successfully made this crossing, emergency services said. This is the largest number of passengers ever to arrive on a single boat.
The migrants, of “sub-Saharan” origin according to sea rescuers, were taken care of upon their arrival.
Spain, and particularly the Canary Islands archipelago off the African coast, is one of the main entry points for illegal migrants into Europe.
The Canaries saw the arrival of 14,976 migrants between 1er January and September 30, an increase of 19.8% compared to the same period of 2022, according to the latest figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
In recent years, the migratory route to the Canaries has been particularly busy due to the tightening of controls in the Mediterranean. Shipwrecks are frequent there, the crossing being particularly dangerous.
NGOs regularly report deadly shipwrecks – the unofficial toll of which, according to them, amounts to dozens, if not hundreds of deaths – in Moroccan, Spanish or international waters.
Since the start of 2023, 140 migrants have died or disappeared during this crossing, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) received in early September.
The Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, which, unlike the IOM, relies on emergency calls with illegal immigrants at sea or their relatives, estimates that 778 migrants died or disappeared on this migratory route in the first semester.