A record 46,843 migrants reached Spain’s Canary Islands illegally last year via the increasingly deadly Atlantic route, the second consecutive year of unprecedented arrival numbers, official data showed on Thursday.The landmark came as the European country received 63,970 irregular migrants last year, the vast majority in the Atlantic archipelago, up from 56,852 in 2023, the interior ministry said.Spain has moved to the forefront of the European Union’s migration crisis as tighter controls in the Mediterranean push more migrants to attempt the perilous trip from west Africa to the Canaries.EU border agency Frontex has said irregular crossings into the bloc from January to November 2024 fell 40% overall but grew 19% on the Atlantic route, with Mali, Senegal and Morocco the most common nationalities.Thursday’s figures confirmed data published in December that showed the record for annual migrant arrivals by boat in the Canaries had been broken for the second year running in November.Last year’s arrivals surpassed the 39,910 migrants who reached the islands off northwestern Africa by sea in 2023, a level that had smashed the previous record from 2006.The national figure for 2024 fell short of the all-time record of 64,298 arrivals set in 2018 but exceeded the 56,852 migrants who reached Spain illegally the previous year.A report last week by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Caminando Fronteras said at least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea from January 1 to December 5, 2024.Caminando Fronteras said it was a 50% increase on 2023 and the highest toll since its tallies began in 2007, attributing it to the use of ramshackle boats, dangerous waters and a lack of resources for rescues.“The loss of a single life is a cause for sadness and we regret every one of them,” the migration ministry told AFP in reaction to the report. “This government maintains a transversal policy that prioritises human rights and works in collaboration with other ministries and countries of origin and transit to promote regular and safe migration.”Local authorities in the Canaries say they are overwhelmed by the waves of arrivals, but Spain’s political parties have failed to agree on a plan to distribute thousands of unaccompanied minors nationwide to ease the burden.Spain, a major gateway to Europe along with Italy and Greece, has emerged as an outlier on European migration policy despite the crisis.Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defends the necessity of migration to support the welfare state and workforce needs as Europe’s population ages.His successive leftist governments since 2018 have eased regularisation rules for illegal migrants in Spain, whereas far-right parties with anti-immigration platforms have surged in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and beyond.
