Nearly 2,200 migrants have reached the Canary Islands over the past two days, Spain’s coastguard said Sunday, continuing a recent surge of arrivals from West African countries to the Spanish archipelago, where the authorities declared a migration emergency earlier this week.
Nearly 2,200 migrants have reached Spain’s Canary Islands by boat over the past two days, Spain’s maritime rescue service said on Sunday.
The archipelago off northwest Africa is a major entry point for migrants, mainly from West Africa, attempting the dangerous Atlantic crossing in makeshift boats. More than 13,000 of the just over 28,000 people who arrived in Spain by sea between January and the end of October landed in the Canary Islands, according to the Interior Ministry.
Spain declared a migration emergency on the islands on Tuesday following a rise in arrivals in recent weeks, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa. The country is due to hold an early general election in two weeks.
The rescue service said it had assisted 1,324 people aboard 14 dinghies, most of whom reached El Hierro, an island with a population of 12,000. That figure approached the route’s daily rescue record of 1,461 people, set on November 7, 2020.
Red Cross staff meet migrants at the port, providing dry clothes, food and water and registering their arrival, Dácil León, the organization’s emergency coordinator in…