Spain’s Canary Islands on Wednesday mark 30 years since two young men from Western Sahara arrived on their shores — the first in an ever-growing procession of migrants from Africa.
Since then, over 200,000 migrants have landed on the Atlantic archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa after travelling hundreds of kilometres on packed, rickety boats in search of a better life in Europe.
The anniversary of the opening of the so-called Canaries route coincides with a tour by Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to three African countries where many of the migrants come from — Mauritania, where he arrived on Tuesday, The Gambia and Senegal.
Sanchez will try to get these nations to step up their efforts to stop migrants from heading to the Canaries, which are struggling to cope with a surge in arrivals.
The archipelago received a record 39,910 migrants in 2023, a figure it is on track to surpass this year.
Over 22,000 migrants have already landed in the Canaries so far this year and the Spanish government estimates there are some 200,000 people in Mauritania, many from war-torn Mali, waiting to make the crossing.
At least 30,000 migrants arrived in the archipelago between 1994 and 2006 when arrivals took off. That year 31,678 migrants landed in the Canaries, a record figure that was only surpassed last year.
Since 2006 a total of 186,811 migrants have landed in the archipelago, bringing to over 200,000 the numbers of arrivals since August 28, 1994, according to interior ministry figures.
On that date, two Sahrawis arrived on the island Fuerteventura on a small wooden boat to request political asylum.
