Canary Islands received this Monday the highest number of immigrant arrivals in a single day so far this year, 634 people in six boats that arrived at Tenerife, Gran Canaria and The ironof which 126 are minors, according to a Red Cross count to which EFE has had access.
Specifically, this Monday three canoes arrived in Tenerife, another in El Hierro and a fifth in Gran Canaria, an island where an inflatable boat was also rescued around midnight.
386 people disembarked in Tenerife (380 men and six women, including 93 minors); in Gran Canaria, 183 (176 men and seven women, including 29 minors); and in El Hierro, 65 (62 men and three women, including four minors).
The counts that EFE publishes daily with data from the emergency services (Maritime Rescue, 112 and Red Cross) show that this It is the highest number of immigrant arrivals by sea to the Canary Islands on a day recorded so far in 2023, a data that is also corroborated by the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance.
“Fortunately these people have managed to arrive, but There are thousands who do not survive one of the most dangerous and lethal migratory routes in the world due to the lack of legal avenues,” CEAR writes on its social network account X (formerly Twitter).
The 634 people treated this Monday in the ports of ArguineguinLos Cristianos, Granadilla and La Restinga far exceed the 495 rescued between August 8 and 9, when another of the year’s peak arrivals occurred, on that occasion concentrated in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura (ten boats).
Although they are far from the record for arrivals in a single day on the Canary Route (1,461 people on Saturday, November 7, 2020), this Monday’s numbers had not been seen for a long time, contributed by the return to the route of the cayucos, artisanal fishing boats capable of transporting up to 200 people (187 were traveling in the one that reached yesterday port of Granadilla, in Tenerife).
Unusually high records in August
This peak also occurs after a month of August with unusually high records for the history of the Canary Route (2,931 arrivals), which have led to the president of the autonomous community, Fernando Clavijoto request the State to strengthen reception resources, particularly on islands such as Lanzarote and El Hierro.
This same afternoon Clavijo is scheduled to meet for this purpose in Madrid with the acting Minister of Social Inclusion and Migration, José Luis Escrivá.
Until the 15 of August, The Canary Route presented figures lower than those of 2022. At the end of that month, it was already 7.5% for that date, with 11,439 arrivals, 54% of the entries by boat registered so far this year in Spain as a whole.
Since the Atlantic Route was reactivated in 2019, the last quarter of the year has always been the most intense in boat arrivals to the Canary Islands, because during that period the most favorable weather conditions for navigation usually occur.
