Farther away, less exposed, but equally dangerous, the route to the Canary Islands, the gateway to Europe in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, is experiencing a resurgence of migration from the African coasts, where it is presented as an “alternative” to the Mediterranean.
For several days now, the maritime route that separates the Spanish archipelago from West Africa and the Maghreb has once again given something to talk about.
At least three boats, which left Senegal with more than 300 migrants on board, have been declared missing, according to the NGO Caminando Fronteras.
One of them would have departed, according to the NGO, from the small Senegalese coastal city of Kafuntine, 1,700 kilometers from the Canary Islands.
Other improvised boats leave the coasts of Morocco and the disputed territory of Western Sahara. From there, it is 450 km of dangerous navigation.
“Migrants go further and further and take ever greater risks. The Canary Islands route is considered one of the deadliest,” Sara Prestianni, a specialist on the subject at the NGO EuroMed Droits, told AFP.
“This option is used as an alternative to reinforcing border controls” at the gates of Europe, he details.
Since mid-2022, an agreement between Rabat and Madrid led to increased surveillance of the Strait of Gibraltar and the two Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, on the North African coast.
On June 24, 2022, an attempt to cross the wall that surrounds Melilla by sub-Saharan exiles was repressed with blood.
In recent months, clandestine arrivals to the Canary Islands had decreased.
The Spanish Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, even congratulated himself in mid-April on the fact that the “Atlantic route”, towards the archipelago, was “the only route in Europe” where the number of irregular entries decreased, while they increased in the central Mediterranean, towards Italy.
All thanks to the Moroccan “essential ally”.
LONG AND DANGEROUS ROUTE
In a document published in July by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, the government notes an 18% decrease in clandestine entries in the first half of 2023.
Between January 1 and June 30, 7,213 people arrived clandestinely aboard 150 boats in the Canary Islands, compared to 8,853 in the same period last year.
A figure that hides a trend. In recent days, the departures have multiplied. This is partly explained by migratory tensions on the other side of the Maghreb, in Tunisia, according to Prestianni.
Since the clashes that cost the life of a Tunisian on July 3, hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have been expelled from Sfax (a nerve center of clandestine emigration from the country) and driven by the authorities to desert and inhospitable areas, especially near Libya.
“It is possible that the migrants decide not to risk racist attacks or expulsions to Libya,” the expert points out.
For years, NGOs and the UN have denounced the multiple crimes (violence, torture, slavery and sexual abuse) of which migrants in Libya are victims.
On the Canary Islands migratory route, identified since 2006 -a time when the boats left Mauritania and Senegal-, “each peak in departures coincides with a peak in deaths,” warns Prestianni.
“It is a very dangerous and long journey. An ocean with strong currents and canoes (traditional Senegalese fishing boats) have often been seen arriving with dead people on board,” recalls the head of EuroMed Droits.
On Wednesday, at least six people died when a canoe capsized en route from Senegal to the Canary Islands.
In a report published at the end of 2022, the NGO Caminando Fronteras estimated the number of migrants killed or disappeared since 2018 trying to reach Spain at more than 11,200.
An average of six per day.