Tourists in Canary Islands see boat refugees arrive daily
Are you going on vacation to Gran Canaria, Tenerife or Lanzarote this summer? Then keep in mind that many refugees, mainly from West Africa, are trying to land on the Canary Islands in order to enter Europe.
The particularly risky journey by sea in often rickety boats often has disastrous consequences for many of them: almost 5,000 deaths have already occurred along West Africa in the first five months of this year. According to Spain's Interior Ministry, nearly three times more people already arrived in the first five months of 2024 than the same period last year.
'Up to 5 boats arrive daily on the beach'
Figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior show that the route to the Canary Islands is not new. In 2022, for example, there were already 22,819 people who left bound for the Spanish archipelago. "There are days when up to five boats with migrants arrive here," said a local resident just last month in a report on the FRANCE 24 television channel.
Over the past two years, however, migration via this route has been on a steep upward trend. This is because there are far more controls along the other routes to enter Spain, such as through Morocco.
When refugees arrive, they have the right to carry out the asylum procedure. Then the country will determine whether or not the person in question will have the right of residence.
(SR for Tagtik/Source: Nieuwsblad - France 24/Illustration picture: Photo by Eric Masur on Unsplash)
