The new immigration routes to Spain

Until less than a year ago (October 2023), most of those who dared to cross the African continent reached the peninsula through the Mediterranean. Almería has always been one of the cities that has welcomed the most people. However, this trend has lost steam in recent months. Currently, most of the people who reach the Spanish coasts do so by sailing across the Atlantic, to reach the Canary Islands. The motives? The signing of agreements between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and Morocco, the change in position regarding the Sahara and the crisis and political instability in Senegal, as explained by CEAR’s program director, Mónica López.

According to reports published by the Ministry of the Interior, in the first quarter of the year, a total of 16,156 people have arrived in Spain from different countries on the African continent, although the majority are of Malian, Senegalese, Mauritanian, Moroccan and Algerian nationality. . It represents an increase of 276% compared to what was registered in 2023 during the same months. However, the majority of migrants, as happened a year ago, have reached the coast by sea, although this time the number of arrivals is higher in the Canary Islands (13,115 compared to 2,178), which means 502% more.

The number of people who have crossed the Spanish border by land has also grown, although with much lower figures. According to the balance presented by the branch headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, 805 migrants have managed to access Ceuta (798) and Melilla (21) in this way. It represents an increase of 365.9% compared to what was recorded in 2023, when more than two hundred expatriates managed to access the autonomous cities.

Most of the boats that have managed to reach the Spanish coasts left mainly from Senegal or Mauritania and arrived in the Canary Islands (13,115). However, they have not docked on all islands equally. El Hierro is the preferred destination for most of the migrants who leave from West Africa, although, once treated by health services, they are usually referred to Tenerife because it is a territory that has more facilities to care for this type. of social emergencies. Gran Canaria is the second province in the community that has received the most foreigners so far this year, according to sources from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

Not all travelers are successful

The more than 16,000 travelers who are welcomed in Spain, in the different centers for migrants, are not the only ones who have left the African coasts. Every year, dozens of people lose their lives trying to find a better one. According to data published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), since 2018 almost 4,000 foreigners have died or disappeared trying to reach the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands or the peninsula itself, although the number could be even higher, since there are shipwrecks. of which there has been no news.

More and more people are dying in the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, although the deadliest year was 2021, when international restrictions on movement due to the pandemic still existed. At that time, 84 boats did not reach land and 1,173 migrants drowned.

The figure in 2024 is much lower, although it must be taken into account that only the first three months of the year are being counted. In total, 87 people have died making these long and difficult journeys.

2023, the year that everything changed

Mónica López explains that “immigration routes are very changing.” Politics, wars, poverty, climate change… There are many factors that influence when deciding to leave one country to reach another and how to achieve it. “Throughout the first half of 2023, arrivals to Spain were quite stopped and the fundamental route was from Nador, through the Mediterranean, to Almería or from the Sahara, but much less so, to the Canary Islands,” explains the program director of CEAR. However, after these months and, above all, more markedly from October onwards, the journey transforms. López points out that the departures occur mainly “from Senegal to the Canary Islands.”

But it’s not just the route that changes. Also the profile of migrants. They go from being Moroccan and Algerian men to Senegalese, Gambian, Malian. And although so far in 2024 it is usually single men or unaccompanied minors who get on the boats, at the end of 2023, López points out, “many families with children” also ventured out. Most of them, Senegalese. “In October and November, we were struck by the large number of parents who were leaving with minors in their care,” says the CEAR program director. And this type of people “are not usually so numerous” on these dangerous trips. The reason? Mónica López considers that it has to do with nationality, due to the crisis that the country has had to face until not long ago. They had no government. Furthermore, the fact of being able to leave from their own territory also “makes it easier” for these groups to decide to migrate, since they are not forced, as in other cases, to cross, for example, the Sahara desert.

But Senegal-Canary Islands is not the only existing route to Spain at the moment. There are also hundreds of migrants who leave from the Sahara (Dajla or Laayoune) towards this community. Although people who leave from Morocco usually head towards the peninsula, mainly Almería, there are those who decide to arrive to Gran Canaria, for example, from Tan-Tan or even from Agadir. Gambia, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau are three other territories from where many vessels seek to reach these islands.

Regarding the Mediterranean, both Mónica López and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration agree that the majority of migrants leaving from Morocco, mainly Nador, but also Tangier, seek to reach the peninsula. To Cádiz and Almería mostly. On the other hand, from Oran, a city located in Algeria, they usually go to the Balearic Islands. Mallorca is the city that has received the most foreign people so far this year.

There are even cases, although they are already minorities, that from the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia) or Sudan decide to cross the continent, passing through Niger, which in recent decades has become a key point for immigration, and head to Spain. However, the majority of people who have this origin use other types of routes, also through the Mediterranean, to reach, for example, Greece or Italy.

And what happens in the Canary Islands?

The arrival of so many migrants to the Canary Islands alone has led to a collapse of the system. For this reason, the Executive headed by Fernando Clavijo Batlle has asked both the central government and other communities for collaboration to welcome these people. This fact, and the way in which Moncloa dealt with the matter, aroused great criticism and controversy. However, five months after the problem began, the waters seem calmer. “It has calmed down a bit,” explains López, although he points out that “not all municipalities or all communities are so reluctant to welcome them.” And, from the point of view of the CEAR program director, it is an opportunity to ‘repopulate’ some regions that have fewer and fewer inhabitants.

Although the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration assures that the number of migrants that each region welcomes cannot be determined, López believes that “to the extent that regional governments see that the centers are functioning well, fears are reduced.” ». However, with a certain tone of frustration, he criticizes that these executives have not shown “the same collaboration with Ukrainian refugees as with the last crisis of arrivals in the Canary Islands.”

And another big problem is occurring on the islands, not only because of the enormous number of migrants who have arrived in the last three months. More and more unaccompanied minors are disembarking in the Canary Islands, a matter that “is the responsibility of the autonomous communities.” López also comments that the Archipelago does not have the capacity to “withstand this pressure in its minor reception circuits.” For this reason, it is currently requesting the “solidarity” of other regions to “try to respond to the children who are arriving.”