More than 900 migrants arrive in the Canary Islands in six cayucos in the last 24 hours

More than 900 migrants arrived this Saturday to the Spanish Canary Islands (Atlantic) in six precarious boats, known as cayucos, after being rescued in the Atlantic by Spanish Maritime Rescue ships and the Civil Guard.

The largest group, of 812 people, arrived on the island of El Hierrro, the least populated of the Canary archipelago, after being rescued near its waters, as has been common in recent weeks.

Among the canoes that arrived today in El Hierro, one had 320 people on board, which, according to emergency services sources, exceeds the one that arrived on October 3, also in El Hierro, with 271 people, and It becomes the barge with the most migrants on record since 1994.

In recent weeks, the arrival of large canoes has been observed, which has also increased the number of people on board, making the dangerous crossing across the Atlantic from the African coast to the Canary Islands.

The second largest boat carried 212 people, to which must be added the other 280 who arrived in El Hierro in two other cayucos. The Red Cross volunteers who treated these people upon arriving on the island referred one of the immigrants to a health center.

Added to them are 98 sub-Saharans rescued from a boat by a Civil Guard patrol boat, also south of El Hierro, but who were transferred to the port of Los Cristianos, on the island of Tenerife. All of them are men, although 13 are minors.

Furthermore, early this Saturday morning, 32 sub-Saharans (20 men, 11 women and one child) arrived at the Arguineguín dock, on the island of Gran Canaria, after having been rescued at sea. Two of these people have been transferred to health centers for presenting various pathologies.

Until the first half of October, 23,500 people arrived

Until the first half of October, 23,500 people arrived in the Canary Islands irregularly, according to the Ministry of the Interior, a figure only surpassed by the 2006 crisis, with an increase in arrivals that has occurred constantly since September of this year. anus.

Given this rebound, the Ministry of the Interior announced this week that Spain will reinforce its surveillance of the coasts of Senegal and Mauritania with a Civil Guard plane for a month and a half, with the collaboration of both countries, to prevent precarious boats from leaving. with migrants to the Canary Islands.

These people undertake the so-called “Canary route” or “Atlantic route”, one of the most dangerous in the world for migration, with the aim of setting foot on Spanish soil, and therefore the European Union, in order to start a new life.