Some migration to Europe from North Africa has been bypassing the Mediterranean recently. In recent weeks, the Atlantic route from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands has seen a dramatic uptick in traffic—and in tragedy.

More than 18,000 people have arrived so far this year in the Canary Islands, which sit just 60 miles (100 kilometers) off the North African coast, a dramatic increase over 2019. More than 500 people have lost their lives trying to make the journey, including at least 140 whose vessel caught fire and sank off the coast of Senegal in October, in the deadliest shipwreck of the year.

In recognition of the increase, representatives from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) visited the islands in November to coordinate the response. The Spanish government has rushed to set up temporary accommodation for thousands of migrants.

The number of arrivals remains well below the 32,000 migrants who reached the Canary Islands in 2006. Yet the escalating numbers this year are putting a strain on the islands, in ways that will be familiar to frontline reception centers across Europe and around the planet. The 5,275 migrants who arrived in the first two weeks of November added up to more than over the last four years combined. 

In some ways, the increasing arrivals are evidence of the balloon-like nature of migration. Closing off or tightening access in one location simply redirects migrants elsewhere. In 2020, the long-running externalization of Europe’s borders into North Africa entered a new stage following the COVID-19 outbreak. Traditional transit routes through Morocco and Libya became even more restrictive, so migration pathways have moved westward. At the same time, economic spirals following the pandemic as well as continued violence and natural disasters in the Sahel may have made migrants more determined to reach Europe.

Many of the migrants heading to the Canary Islands are from West Africa, and the uptick has prompted Spain to increase its support for Senegal’s border efforts, including by sending more patrols to the Senegalese coastline and bolstering the Guardia Civil’s presence in the country. Last week, Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya met Senegal’s President Macky Sall in Dakar to align their efforts.

In an ironic twist, the new migrants are in some ways replacing another category of international travelers whose presence is much more muted this year: tourists. In some cases, migrants are being housed in the very hotels that in other years would be full of beach-going vacationers.

Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected]