As the Canary Islands mourn their worst-ever migrant tragedy, they have confirmed their status as one of the most prominent destinations for those attempting to reach Europe.
Last weekend, a migrant vessel carrying more than 80 people, which had set off from west Africa, capsized as Spanish rescue services attempted to help it when it was approaching El Hierro island. The bodies of nine migrants, including one of a child, were recovered while another estimated 50 or so remain missing. Twenty-seven people were rescued.
“Those who died are people in extreme vulnerability and who have taken the risk of getting on a boat and leaving their country […] to risk their lives and come to Europe,” said Candelaria Delgado, a local councillor in the Canary Islands local government.
According to the NGO Caminando Fronteras, between January and May of this year alone, about 5,000 people died while making the same crossing, which usually takes several days in wooden fishing boats packed with passengers.
[ Eight migrants die trying to cross English Channel overnightOpens in new window ]
However, neither that figure nor the latest tragedy appear to be deterring migrants. New Spanish government figures released this week show that 30,808 people made the journey from the African coast to the islands between January and the end of September, more than double last year’s equivalent figure.
The trend has remained on the increase in recent days, with 4,050 migrants reaching the islands in the last two weeks of September alone. The regional president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said that “if this continues, we could surpass 50,000″ arrivals this year, which would break last year’s record of 40,000.
Clavijo estimated that about 170,000 people, in refugee camps and elsewhere near the west African coast, could also make the journey in the near future.
These figures mean that the so-called western African route to the islands, along with the western Mediterranean route to mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, are quickly catching up with the central and eastern Mediterranean routes.
The phenomenon has fuelled an intense debate about immigration, which in recent months has been thrust to the fore of Spanish national politics. On the list of priority issues for Spaniards, it has gone from ninth position in June to first, according to the national research council (CIS) – although the credibility of that institution’s studies has come under scrutiny.
The capacity of immigrant centres on the Canary Islands, which in many cases are overcrowded and with stretched resources, has been one talking point. However, an even more pressing issue has been the approximately 6,000 unaccompanied migrant minors on the archipelago, who by law must remain in Spain, regardless of whether their countries of origin have deportation agreements.
The Socialist-led coalition government has been locked in negotiations with the opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) and Clavijo’s Canary Coalition in an effort to reach a consensus on the distribution of the minors across the rest of Spain.
One of the obstacles to a deal has been the link repeatedly made by the far-right Vox party between immigrants and crime, which the PP has started to echo recently. By contrast, the government has roundly rejected such claims. Interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska described them as “alarmist, self-interested and false”, while presenting data which he said showed there was no connection between crime and immigration.
Clavijo recently said that, three decades after the first migrants boats reached his region from Africa, Spain was still unable to manage this challenge.
“Thirty years later we are worse than ever, we haven’t been able to find a solution for this structural problem,” he said, describing the archipelago as “some little islands, an ultra-peripheral region, the southern border of Europe.”
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