More than 5,000 are minors // The Canary Islands continue to be the main point of entry

Armando G. Tejeda

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, September 3, 2024, p. 23

Madrid. The Spanish Interior Ministry announced yesterday that 6,267 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa arrived in the Canary Islands in July and August alone after a dangerous journey lasting several days in a small wooden boat.

Among them are more than 5,000 minors, most of whom live in overcrowded temporary shelters that are overwhelmed.

The months with the highest traffic of migrant boats to reach the Spanish coasts are usually between June and October; hence the Spanish government, headed by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, published a provisional report on the arrival of migrants. Once again, the Canary Islands are the preferred destination, concentrating more than 60 percent of people seeking a better future on European soil and fleeing wars, poverty, famine and unemployment.

In the second half of August alone, arrivals in the Canary Islands amounted to 3,220 people; almost half of the migrant arrivals this summer were recorded in the last 15 days, the Ministry of the Interior indicated.

These figures mark a record since statistics have been kept and are far from the number of migrants who have arrived in the last five years between July and August, as last year, with 4,446 arrivals, 1,896 in 2022, 2,303 in 2021, 1,225 in 2020 or the 151 in the summer of 2019.

So far this year, 25,524 people have arrived in the Canary Islands, an increase of 123 percent compared to the first eight months of 2023. As of August 31, 35,456 migrants had crossed Spain’s borders, 62.8 percent more.