This Sunday, the Maritime Rescue services rescued 167 immigrants who were trying to reach the Spanish Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. According to the authorities, some migrants had to be transferred to medical assistance centers due to their state of health when they stepped on Spanish soil.
According to a note published in the EFE news agency, the immigrants were traveling aboard four precarious boats bound for the Canary Islands, and were located in waters near the islands of Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. The survivors of this event are men and women of North African origin and among them there is also a child.
According to information from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, during 2022, 28,930 irregular immigrants arrived in Spain by sea and 15,682 of them used the Atlantic route. In addition, the authorities affirmed that the so-called Atlantic route is considered the deadliest of all the migratory routes to reach Spain from Africa.
During this year the arrival of irregular immigrants to the coast of Spain has been reduced by 44% compared to the previous year, and almost half of them arrived on the coast of the Canary Islands with 2,376 people.
Despite this, at the beginning of the month the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) published a report on Monday that determined that between January and April of this year 80,700 irregular entries of immigrants into the European Union (EU), which which is the highest level recorded since 2016.
With information from EFE
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