Canary Islands Report 600 Percent Increase In Migrant Arrivals
A boat containing 80 migrants including one person who was dead and three who are seriously ill has turned up in the Canary Islands as authorities reveal they are struggling to cope with the number of new arrivals.
The discovery of the boat with the dead and injured refugees comes as local authorities reveal the total number of people who arrived this year has already exceeded the totals for last year.
A total of 11,409 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands in these 10 months, a figure that represents an increase of 664 percent compared to 2019, when 1,493 people had registered at the same time.
In the number of boats, there were 92 vessels recorded arriving until 31st October last year while this year, at the same time, there have been 411 already counted.
The Maritime Rescue teams and the Civil Guard of Spain rescued people in the latest boat to arrive which they said was occupied by about 80 people.
The migrants were taken to the port of Los Cristianos, in the Southern part of Tenerife, located in the touristic Canary Islands, at 8 am on Wednesday (4th November) this week.
Doctors from the Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC) offered medical assistance to all the people who arrived on the boat.
At the moment, the exact number of occupants in the boat is unknown, as well as if there were any women or children on board.
What is confirmed is that most of them are of sub-Saharan origin.
In recent months, boats have arrived in the Canary Islands with hundreds of immigrants in them.
The Canary Islands Government assured that they are overwhelmed with the arrival of so many people, as reported in Antena3 online, a Spanish newspaper.
There also higher numbers across Spain in general, but the Canary Islands have been particularly badly hit.
Latest statistics show there were 27,551 migrants arrived to Spain during the first 10 months of 2020 and in the same period last year 27,243 had arrived. The figures quoted are from the official statistics published by the Ministry of the Interior of Spain.