The situation on the migration route to the Canary Islands is extremely serious, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said Tuesday in a debate in the EU parliament. She said the bloc needed to work with external partners to protect human lives and fight against traffickers.
Spain's maritime rescue service late Friday salvaged a boat carrying over 30 migrants and brought them safely to the Canary Islands, but not in time to save one child who reportedly died at sea. Meanwhile, some migrants on the Canaries have reportedly begun a hunger strike.
In a year that saw over 20,000 migrants arrive on the Canary Islands, Spain's maritime rescue service Salvamento Marítimo saved more than 650 migrant boats. InfoMigrants spoke with the agency about its strategy for responding to distress calls, coordination with Morocco and what we can expect this year.
Amid a surge in migrant arrivals to Spain's Canary Islands, authorities are struggling to provide for the needs of over 2,000 unaccompanied minors on the archipelago. InfoMigrants spoke with Save the Children about the children's health, what happens when they turn 18 and why walls against migratory flows don't work.
Nearly 2,200 migrants died trying to reach Spain by sea this year, most on their way to the Canary Islands. The migrant rights group Caminando Fronteras said a reduction in rescue services was partly to blame.
The information flow about the roughly 22,000 migrants who have arrived on Spain's Canary Islands this year is slow and often intransparent – from authorities, NGOs and locals alike. The lack of communication and absence of facts have long helped fuel rumors and xenophobia.
Moustapha arrived in the Canary Islands in 2006 as part of the previous influx of mass arrivals at that time. He befriended a young compatriot from Morocco who arrived there by boat in November this year.
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.
In recent months, thousands of migrants have been taken in by hotels on Spain's Canary Islands. This has caused tension in the islands' vital tourist industry, which was hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. It remains unclear if the migrants' presence will hurt the popularity of the holiday destination at all -- but xenophobia is on the rise.
On the Canary Islands, the new wave of migrant arrivals is becoming a real challenge for the archipelago's long-standing culture of hospitality. The islands have been hit hard by the economic crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, and is now facing the biggest migrant influx since 2006.
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.