The illegal immigration route to the Spanish Canary Islands is known as one of the most dangerous to Europe and statistics reveal that last year nearly 40,000 migrants made the perilous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean last year, more than double the number in 2022.
The number of migrants who arrived in Spain overall in 2023 numbered 56,852, up 82.1% compared to the figure from 2022, largely driven by migrants crossing the Atlantic to the Canary Islands, a report from the newspaper Le Figaro notes.
The figures come from the Spanish Interior Ministry and represent the highest number of illegal arrivals to Spain since 2018 when over 64,000 migrants arrived on Spanish shores.
While the numbers to Spain overall nearly doubled, those to the Canary Islands dramatically increased by 154.5% from last year to a total of 39,910 migrants, a new record for the islands that lie off the western coast of Africa, surpassing the previous record set in 2006.
Most of the migrants who came to the islands in 2023 originated from either Morocco or Senegal. The surge has been explained by a number of factors, including poverty, while some young people have stated they were simply bored.
Moustapha Ndiaye, president of the fishermen’s association in the Senegalese port town of Mbour, explained to Africanews in July of last year, “The state signed agreements with European and Asian trawlers for industrial-scale fishing,” and added, “There’s less fish and the young are leaving.”
“Spain… We all want to go there. If a boat leaves, I’ll jump right in,” a young man named Abdou told the news website and stated, “If you’re starving, you always end up finding something to eat somewhere else.”
“Whether you live here or die here, it’s all the same,” another young man said and added, “There’s no work here, no money. The only solution is Spain.”
Another reason the dangerous Canary Island boat journey has become attractive to migrants is that the previous land route to northern Africa had been largely blocked when the government of Niger started conducting border controls in 2019.
The dangerous route has claimed thousands of lives according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, as many as 7,800 people have either died or gone missing travelling to the Canary Islands on small boats from 2018 to 2022.
Some Senegalese groups are trying to encourage young people not to make the voyage, however, such as the National Association of Migrant Partners (ANPM), which also provides aid to those who may have lost family members who made the journey.
The Senegalese government has also attempted to prevent boats from leaving by deploying its navy on search and rescue missions but, according to Reuters, the navy often has difficulty discerning which ships are migrant boats rather than fishing vessels.
Commander Diallo of the naval patrol boat Walo told Reuters that he had intercepted at least 4,000 illegal migrants by November after his operations began in August but migrants continue to attempt the journey.
Spain has also worked with Senegal in an effort to halt the flow of illegal migrants, offering drones and its own security personnel in October last year.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska visited Senegal in October and committed four boats with 38 Spanish troops alongside a helicopter, 13 all-terrain vehicles and civil guard aircraft to patrol the West African coast.
The rise in illegal arrivals to Spain comes as part of a broader trend across southern Europe as Frontex, the European Union border Agency, notes that the western, central and eastern Mediterranean migration routes have all seen significant increases last year.
