The Canary Islands – a tourist paradise if it weren't for the pandemic. But the islands have also been making headlines as more and more migrants arrived there. As camps and shelters were bursting at the seams and hotels were empty anyway because of the pandemic, the island's government requested to have vacation resorts take them in. That didn’t sit well with everyone.
The UN agencies UNHCR and IOM have spoken out against a steady increase in the number of migrants dying at sea after a boat was found near the Tenerife island with the corpses of 24 migrants onboard.
The migrants on the boat were all sub-Saharan Africans, rescue officials say. Three survivors have been transferred to a hospital on Tenerife.
Tensions are rising on the Canary Islands where migrants feel trapped – they are officially in Europe but unable to get to the mainland. Many of them are leaving the camps, saying they are inadequate.
The European agency Frontex reported Thursday that illegal border crossings at Europe's external borders in January fell by almost half from the previous year to about 5,800.
Fearing deportation and racist attacks, migrants stranded in the Canary Islands have been on hunger strike recently to demand their transfer to the mainland. There have also been reports of self-mutilation.
Four migrants were found dead on arrival when a boat carrying 47 migrants landed in Tenerife at dawn, Spanish coast guards said Tuesday. Three others were hospitalized with burns and other injuries.
A Senegalese court has sentenced three fathers to jail after it found that the fathers had pushed their sons to migrate. They were found guilty of "endangering the lives of others."
18-year-old Babacar is one of more than 8,000 African migrants who made his way to the Canary Islands archipelago in November 2020. When InfoMigrants spoke to him, Babacar had just been taken in by a Canary Islands resident who decided to help him.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson traveled to Morocco for a two-day visit this week. Her aim was to improve cooperation with Morocco on the return of migrants and start the discussion over visa facilitation.
Mbaye Babacar Diouf was just 15 when he arrived in Spain after crossing the Atlantic in a small boat to the Canary Islands. On arrival, after receiving care from the Red Cross, he promised himself he would -- one day -- become a nurse. He's achieved that dream and is about to embark on his next challenge -- to become a doctor.
At least eight people have died and searches are continuing for at least one person believed to be missing after a boat capsized and sank off the Spanish Canary Islands on Tuesday evening.