According to the NGO Caminando Fronteras, more than 5,000 migrants died trying to reach Spain, mainly by the Atlantic Ocean, during the first five months of the year, the equivalent of 33 deaths per day. More precisely, 5,054 people died between January 1 and May 31, including 154 women and 50 minors. The vast majority of deaths (4,808) took place on the route to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic.
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With our correspondent in Madrid, Francois Musseau
These are not normal figures, they are even frightening. These are the words of Helena Maleno, founder of the non-governmental organization Caminando Fronteras. This NGO has been warning for years about the worsening situation.
In 2023, there were a total of 6,618 drowning deaths among migrants trying to reach the Spanish coast. However, this year in just six months, we are at just over 5,000, which suggests a sinister record at the end of the year.
Makeshift boats
These tragedies are mainly concentrated on the Atlantic route between the west coast of Africa and the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries, because the Mediterranean route from Morocco or Algeria is heavily controlled by the civil guard. This is less the case for routes leaving from southern Morocco, Mauritania or Senegal.
On the other hand, embarking on makeshift boats over a distance which can be around 1,500 kilometers and in the presence of strong sea currents is extremely perilous, which explains the very high number of deaths at sea. The situation is all the more more dramatic as the migratory rate continues to increase. There were 20,854 arrivals at the end of May 2024, compared to 8,812 at the same time last year.
Read alsoThe Canaries: the deadliest migration route to Europe