SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 11 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The UNHCR representative in Spain, Sophie Muller, warned this Wednesday that migratory mafias organize routes “with more risks” due to the increase in controls on the coasts by the countries of origin and transit and in collaboration with Spain.
“The smugglers are going to adapt to the route that works, not the safest,” he said in statements to journalists before speaking at the ‘Conference on Immigration’ organized by the CGPJ and the Government of the Canary Islands in which he highlighted that the mafias “identify the gaps” in the security network and generate “additional dangers” for travelers.
Muller has commented that his organization is “in the observation phase” to check if the slowdown in the departure of boats is consolidated after the new diplomatic agreements between Spain and Morocco since “the movements are changing” and there are no “massive jumps” in Ceuta and Melilla.
However, he has warned that the “rising season” for boats and canoes is now beginning because the state of the sea is improving and they are “waiting” for trends to consolidate, and if there is a slowdown in flows “or if it causes more risks to be taken to avoid controls.
Thus, he has admitted that “boats continue to arrive in the Canary Islands from Africa” and in this context he has thanked the “effort” carried out by Salvamento Marítimo so that migrants can arrive “safely” in the archipelago and then be treated “with dignity” thanks to Spanish institutions and social organisations.
In addition, he has advocated that people who request asylum “can do so.”
Muller has pointed out that the current situation must be analyzed “calmly” and see the profile, the nationality, the reasons for the trip, analyze the causes and see the answers they need, making it clear that “the sea is not a safe environment” and those who take it “see no alternative”.
In his opinion, the reasons that motivate a migrant to embark are economic, in search of international protection due to wars, persecution or terrorism, or climate change, which is causing crop failure and famine.
