The number of migrants who died or went missing while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2023 will be more than double the number recorded the previous year, migrant rights groups announced on Tuesday.
At least 6,618 people died or went missing while traveling to Spain, with record numbers heading to the Canary Islands, according to research by the charity Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders).
The number was nearly triple the previous year’s numbers to 2,390, and the highest since the charity began counting in 2007, said coordinator Helena Mareno.
The “shameful” figure includes 384 children, according to an organization that compiles statistics from families of dead and missing migrants.
Mareno argued that the increase in migrant deaths and disappearances last year was due to a lack of resources for rescuers.
Nearly half were migrants who left Senegal for Spain. Thousands of people have fled Senegal due to political instability, lack of jobs, rising food prices and depleted fish stocks.
The majority of deaths (6,007 people) occurred on the Atlantic migration route from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands.
As controls tighten in the Mediterranean, seven islands have become favorite destinations for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa, but most are overcrowded and unseaworthy without enough food and water to navigate. on a low boat.
“The Atlantic route has become the deadliest route in the world,” Mareno said.
Migrants arriving in Spain – see in pictures
According to Interior Ministry statistics, the number of migrants entering Spain illegally in 2023 will almost double from the previous year to 56,852.
This is the highest number since 2018, when 64,298 immigrants entered the country.
The majority (about 70%) arrived in the Canary Islands, which are only 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Africa’s northwest coast at its closest point.
Boats depart from Morocco and further south from Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal.
The 1,600 km journey from Senegal to the Canary Islands typically takes a week with difficult upwind navigation.
In October, Spain’s central government pledged a package worth 50 million euros ($54 million) to support the surge in arrivals.
Madrid is also increasing cooperation with Senegal and Mauritania to intercept ships leaving for the Canary Islands.
Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlasca said on Thursday that cooperation with the African nation had prevented more than 27,000 would-be migrants from leaving Spain last year.
“We saved lives,” he claimed.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which bases its tally on press and second-hand reports, says more than 1,200 migrants died or went missing trying to reach Spain last year.
But the UN agency stressed that figure is likely to be a “significant” underestimate, given the difficulty of documenting shipwrecks at sea and the fact that most bodies are never found.
Updated: January 9, 2024, 10:06 p.m.