Recently, and over the course of a single week, the Canary Islands received almost 900 illegal migrants.
The flow is constant and diversified. The 12th of May, for example, saw the arrival of 321 migrants who disembarked on different islands from 8 different ships.
This contributes to a particularly intense year, with almost 8,000 illegal entries into the Canary Islands so far, constituting a 50% increase in illegal migration compared to the same time period in 2021. In total, the islands hosted over 23,000 irregular migrants in 2021, more than the total arrivals in Spain’s Balearic Islands and mainland coasts, which just exceeded 17,000.
It appears Spanish acquiescence and Moroccan complicity remain allied in facilitating the work of human traffickers.
Sources favorable to Spain’s government have suggested that Spanish acceptance of Moroccan designs on the Western Sahara constituted a strategic concession to get the North African state to stem the flow of migrants. For now, however, it seems no such change in Morocco’s policy has taken place. Such a policy would, in any case, amount to blackmail and further highlight the unwillingness to secure the border among Spanish politicians.
