Since the beginning of the year, over 30,000 migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands. This was announced by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior and they emphasized that the influx of asylum seekers is already close to the annual record for this indicator.
October was a record month for the migrant flow to the Canary Islands with nearly 15,000 arrivals.
A total of 30,705 undocumented migrants reached the Canary Islands in the first 10 months of 2023. Their number is close to the total for the entire year in the record year of 2006, when 31,678 migrants arrived in the archipelago, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
The number of people who risked taking the dangerous route from Africa is 111 percent higher than the same period last year. In addition, most of the over 43 thousand migrants who arrived in Spain by sea came to the Canary Islands.
A third of the migrants who came to the Canary Islands landed on the westernmost and smallest island of Hierro. The data also shows that more than half of the migrants who reach the seven-island archipelago are of Senegalese origin.
Last week, Spain’s central government promised to create emergency shelter for 3,000 people, after regional authorities said they were being left to cope with the migrant pressure.
Worked on the publication: Vencislav Vassilev
