Number of migrants reaching Spain’s Canary Islands breaks all-time record
Madrid, Spain Reuters The number of migrants reaching Spain’s Canary Islands on precarious vessels from West Africa has hit an all-time annual record with 41,425 arrivals between 1st January and 30th November of this year, Interior Ministry data showed on Monday. The seven islands off north-western Africa’s Atlantic coast are struggling to absorb the surge […]
Irregular migration: In Spain’s Canaries, rescuers exhausted as new routes open
JOAN FAUS and HORACI GARCIA, of Reuters, report on the continuing crisis as Spain’s Canary Islands face an influx of migrants…
Hopes fade of finding dozens of migrants missing after boat sinks off Canary Islands
El Hierro, Spain Reuters Hopes of finding any of the 48 migrants missing since their boat sank near the Spanish island of El Hierro are diminishing, authorities said on Sunday, in what threatens to be the deadliest such incident in 30 years of crossings from Africa to the Canary Islands. Nine people, one of them […]
Seven feared dead on migrant boat off Spain’s Canary Islands
Arguineguin, Spain Reuters Two people died and five are feared dead after they attempted to reach Spain’s Canary Islands on a boat with migrants on board, authorities said on Tuesday. The pirogue – a type of dugout canoe – was sighted on Monday evening at around 8pm by a merchant vessel which alerted authorities on […]
Migrant arrivals to Spain’s Canaries surge seven-fold so far this year
Madrid, Spain Reuters The number of migrants boarding rickety boats from West Africa and reaching Spain’s Canary Islands has risen seven-fold so far this year from the same period of 2023, Interior Ministry data showed on Friday. A total of 11,704 irregular migrants reached the Atlantic Ocean archipelago between 1st January and 15th February, compared […]
EU border agency says stopping migration is impossible
Warsaw, Poland Reuters Irregular immigration to the EU from Western Africa rose more than 10 times on the year in January, according to the bloc’s Frontex border agency, which expects overall arrivals to grow in 2024 and says halting the movement of people completely is impossible. Frontex head Hans Leijtens spoke in his Warsaw office […]
Over 8,500 migrants reach Spain’s Canary Islands in two weeks – ministry data
Madrid, Spain Reuters At least 8,561 migrants have reached the Canary Islands over the past two weeks, representing more than a third of this year’s total arrivals, data from Spain’s interior ministry showed on Monday. Between 1st January and 15th October of this year, the islands in the Atlantic received 23,537 migrants, an 80 per […]
EU probes border agency’s rescue role after migrant shipwreck killed hundreds
Brussels, Belgium Reuters The EU rights watchdog on Wednesday announced a probe into Europe’s deadliest shipwreck in years and whether the bloc’s Frontex border agency fulfilled its rescue duties when the boat sank off Greece last month killing hundreds of migrants. An undated handout photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows migrants onboard a […]
Updated: At least 79 drown, hundreds missing in migrant shipwreck off Greece
Updated: 9:25am, 15th June, 2023 (AEST) Athens, Greece Reuters At least 79 migrants drowned early on Wednesday and hundreds more were missing and feared dead after their overloaded boat capsized and sank in open seas off Greece, in one of Europe’s deadliest shipping disasters in recent years. As a painstaking search for survivors continued, a European […]
Europe could see record numbers trying to reach its borders this year, agency says
Warsaw, Poland Reuters The European Union could see another record number of people seeking to reach its borders this year via irregular crossings, with more migrants driven by poverty and climate change rather than conflict, the EU’s Frontex border agency said on Friday. Frontex reported some 330,000 unauthorised arrivals via all routes last year, the […]