Five boats carrying 72 migrants independently reached Mallorca and neighboring islands on Wednesday. The arrival of migrant boats on Spain's Balearic Islands is rare, but numbers have increased in recent years.
While the Spanish Canary Islands have seen tens of thousands of migrants arrive in recent years, the Balearic Islands have recently also seen an increase in migrant arrivals.
Of late, more migrant boats have been arriving on Spain's Balearic Islands compared with the normally more frequented route to the Canary Islands. This indicates that migration routes to Spain from Africa could be shifting.