Simon Hunter
Spain’s Canary Islands have calculated that more than a thousand would-be migrants have either died or disappeared at sea while trying to reach land in the year so far.
According to data from the United Nation’s Missing Migrants agency, this latest figure is nearly as high as that seen in the whole of 2021, according to Spanish daily El País. This is despite the fact that the number of boats that reached the Canarian coasts from January to August has fallen by 3%, meaning that the route is less travelled but is becoming more deadly.
Most of the craft attempting to reach the Canary Islands are coming from Morocco and the north of the Sahara to islands such as Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, according to Red Cross figures. The fall in the number of craft coming has been attributed to stricter measures taken by the Moroccan authorities to prevent the would-be migrants from leaving.
Once migrants reach Spanish soil, they are supposed to be legally processed and taken in by the authorities, hence the desperation of many to reach destinations such as the Canary Islands.
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