Nearly 2,200 migrants died trying to reach Spain by sea
this year, the vast majority of them on their way to the Canary
Islands, a migrant rights group said Tuesday.
Migrants arrivals in the archipelago have increased this year as
they looked for alternative routes to reach Europe due to increased
patrolling off the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain, posing a
logistical strain for authorities in the Canaries.
A total of 2,170 migrants perished in attempts to get to Spain
by boat this year, compared to 893 in 2019, according to a report
by the non-governmental organisation Caminando Fronteras, which
monitors migratory flows.
Eighty-five percent of this year’s deaths, or 1,851, took place
during 45 shipwrecks on the route to the Canary Islands, according
to the report.
The shortest route to the islands is more than 100 kilometres
(60 miles) from the Moroccan coast, but it is notoriously dangerous
because of the strong currents in the Atlantic.
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Helena Maleno, an activist with the NGO, blamed the rise in
deaths this year on the greater distance needed to travel to the
Canaries and the “dismantlement of rescue services”.
She also blamed a “lack of coordination” between the nations
which operate rescue services in the region — Spain, Mauritania,
Senegal and Morocco — which leads to delays in launching
operations.
Spanish interior ministry figures show that between January 1
and November 30, a total of 19,566 people landed on the Atlantic
archipelago, compared with just 1,993 a year earlier.
The surge in arrivals filled migrant reception centres on the
Canaries, forcing thousands of migrants to live in a makeshift tent
camp on a pier in the island of Gran Canaria last month.
They were eventually transferred to a military camp and hotels
on the island.
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/12/30/nearly-2200-migrants-died-trying-to-reach-europe-in-2020-ngo/