Already struggling Spain warned to brace itself for migrant and refugee overload as arrivals DOUBLE in a year

SPAIN has been warned of a continued increase in migrants coming to its shores after the number has already doubled this year. 

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the country’s ‘insufficient’ structures to hold the migrants are already being stretched.

It claims Spain is not prepared to handle vulnerable groups, including victims of trafficking or unaccompanied minors and refugees who should be channelled through asylum procedures.

Spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Spain, Maria Jesus Vega said: “What is clear is that, they (Spain’s government) have to get ready.

“They can’t be caught unprepared. What started happening elsewhere in Europe in 2015 can’t be allowed to happen here.

“It’s not yet an emergency, but you have to take into account that there are no structures here to deal with more arrivals.”

The Italian sea route remains the most popular overall with 59,000 migrants between January and May, up 32% from last year, but the Spanish route further west saw 6,800 migrants using it in the same period, a 75% increase from 2016.

The trend was even more pronounced last month after 1,900 migrants – who were mostly young men from Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gambia and Cameroon – reached the southern region of Andalucia, quadruple the figure the year before.

About 88 migrants from Morocco were rescued off the Strait of Gibraltar in June, including 20 children.

Buba Fubareh, a 27-year-old mason from Banjul, Gambia, who tried and failed to get to Europe via Libya earlier this year told Sky News: “People are talking about going to Spain. It seems like it is safer to go through Morocco to Spain than through Libya.

“The difference is that Libya doesn’t have a president and Morocco does – there are not guns like in Libya.”