The 84 occupants of the canoe that arrived this Wednesday at The iron after eight days of crossing from Senegal have stated that they left Dakar at the same time as eight other fishing boats like theirs that headed for Canary Islandswhich confirms a relevant change in the route.
Are the cayucos back? This is the question that has been floating around for weeks among Maritime Rescue and Red Cross personnel in the Canary Islands, after more than a year in which the immigration route to the islands has been almost monopolized by shorter distance routes: the few more than 100 kilometers that separate the Tarfaya coasts (Morocco) or El Ayoun (Sahara) of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
This had caused Lanzarote to have become for months the island that receives the most arrivals of small boats for the first time in more than a decade (in this case, generally pneumatic), with figures that contrasted with the Tenerife or El Hierro, islands much further away from the continent, which are usually reached by those who venture to the Atlantic much further south, from Senegal or The Gambia.
On May 3, the Red Cross count (the Ministry of the Interior does not provide data by island) showed that Lanzarote had already received 1,729 people, 50% of all the “traffic” of the Canary Route, while arrivals to Tenerife were limited to 76 people and the El Hierro counter had not exceeded nine.
The transit of inflatable boats to Lanzarote and Fuerteventura has not stopped since that date, but has accelerated in June, but at the same time the return of the canoes has called the attention of the emergency services, both the Mauritanian type, more small, generally white, like the Senegalese, fishing boats that are much larger and easily distinguished by their colorful decoration, which can carry up to 200 people inside.
According to a count carried out by EFE in its news service, since May 23, twelve canoes have arrived in the Canary Islands with 933 people on board, both Mauritanians and Senegalese, with a number of occupants ranging from 32 to the smallest (the rescued on June 18 in Gran Canariaup to 159 of the largest (the one that reached the coast of Tenerife on June 11, two days after another with 154).
It was something that the emergency services involved in assisting migrants and the NGOs already expected to happen at any time, for three reasons: because the Moroccan collaboration seems to have blocked, or at least greatly reduced, the exits from Dakhla , the great protagonists of the years 2020 and 2021; because of the effect that drought and the shortage of cereals after the war in Ukraine is having in sub-Saharan Africa; and, above all, because of the instability and unrest in Senegal.
So when this Wednesday, the 73 men, nine minors and two women who arrived sailing by their own means to the port of La Estaca told the assistance in El Hierro that nine canoes had left together, their message was not entirely surprising.
It only confirmed that the cayucos have returned to the route, but the sources were struck by their number: it is not known how many people jumped into the sea at the same time that day towards the Canary Islands, but if those nine boats are awarded For example, the average occupation of the last twelve canoes registered on the islands (77 people), this reveals that around 700 people were able to leave Dakar at the same time on June 21 alone.
This new turn in the route has several implications: among them, that it may be necessary to reinforce the first reception resources in El Hierro and that rescues may return to the limit, because no canoe is expressly directed to the westernmost of the Canary Islands : there come those who take their last chance before being pushed into the ocean far from the last land.
