Spanish President Pedro Sánchez concludes his tour of Africa // He advocates the expulsion of without papers

▲ Arrival of one of the canoes, carrying a total of 400 foreigners, to the port of La Restinga in El Hierro, Canary Islands.Photo Europa Press

Armando G. Tejeda,

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, August 30, 2024, p. 30

Madrid. On the same day that the Spanish Prime Minister, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, completed a brief tour of three African countries, one of the most intense days was recorded on the island of El Hierro, in the Canary Islands, when 494 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were located and rescued adrift in four cayucos or small wooden boats.

Many of them arrived with signs of dehydration and were very weak, so they were immediately transferred to the temporary reception centre on the small island, where there are already up to 700 people waiting to be transferred to other facilities in better conditions.

The drama of migration does not cease on the Spanish coasts. The so-called canary route It is the preferred route for migrants trying to reach European soil, many of whom come from countries at war and impoverished by decades of fighting, drought and natural disasters. Many of them come from Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and Gambia.

One of the smallest islands in the Canary Islands, El Hierro, received up to 494 people in just one day, who were located thanks to the radar of the Spanish Maritime Rescue vessels, which placed them in four boats about nine miles south of the island. From there they were escorted to the dock to disembark and be immediately treated by the emergency medical team on duty.

This new mass arrival has caused even more overcrowding at the Temporary Reception Centre for Foreigners (CATE) in El Hierro, in the town of San Andrés, where there are already a total of 701 migrants waiting to be transferred to other facilities outside the island. In addition, the Red Cross has installed nearly 200 camp beds in the San Andrés sports centre, next to the centre, in anticipation of new arrivals in the coming hours and days.

Meanwhile, President Sánchez concluded his tour of three African countries – Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal – with a message that the left allied to his government, especially Podemos and Sumar, described as close to the ideas of the right.

The Spanish president defended the repatriation of migrants who arrived in Spain in a way irregular and who currently do not have their administrative situation in order, as both the right-wing Popular Party and the extreme right of Vox defend, although the latter advocates a mass expulsion.

Spain was the fifth country in the European Union that carried out the most expulsions of non-EU migrants in the first quarter of 2024, with more than 2,500 people returned, while orders to leave the country were issued for more than 1,500 irregular migrants, according to the latest data from Eurostat. In total, until April 2024, EU member states expelled 30,570 non-EU migrants, which represents 11.4 percent more than in the same period of the previous year.