The Canary Islands continue to be on the limit due to the arrivals of migrants. More than 5,300 people have already arrived in the Canary archipelago in 56 boats during the first eight days of November, according to a provisional calculation that adds the latest arrivals reported by Salvamento Marítimo during this weekend to the 4,587 reported by the regional government this Friday afternoon. This Saturday alone, a total of seven cayucos reached the Canary coast - six to El Hierro and one to Lanzarote - with a total of 797 migrants.
One of the last canoes rescued was this Saturday night, when a warning from an echo radar from the Civil Guard during the night forced the Dipha Maritime Rescue team to be mobilized in order to rescue a canoe that was 16.6 kilometers (9 nautical miles) from La Restinga, on the island of El Hierro, and that had 215 migrants on board, including 10 women and four minors. The salvamar was able to escort the vessel to the port and was assisted in docking by the salvamar Navia.
This Sunday morning, in addition, there have been new arrivals of canoes to El Hierro, although the number of migrants who were on board these boats has not yet been confirmed. For the moment, El Hierro has thus become the island that is receiving the most migratory pressure after a total of more than 8,000 people have arrived on the island in the last five weeks.
Given this, with reception, health and police resources already very saturated, many of the migrants are being transferred to other islands. This Saturday alone the authorities have mobilized a thousand migrants to Tenerife aboard several ferries. According to emergency department sources, starting next week there will be two daily frequencies of special ferry services to continue with the routes to both Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
The Cabildo of El Hierro, in fact, whose island has a population of almost 12,000 people, decreed this Friday a social emergency due to the increase in the arrival of cayucos and the consequent pressure on the island. The island corporation requested the Government of the Canary Islands and the Government of Spain for more human and material resources, as well as a rotation that allows the Maritime Rescue personnel, the Canarian Health Service, security forces and bodies, the Red Cross and NGOs to rest. He also called for improving referral protocols to other islands with greater capacity and strengthening first reception facilities.
The Cabildo warned that the current situation "already presents a considerable level of tension, with coordination difficulties and concern over the possibility that migratory pressure will continue to increase in the coming weeks and months." And he adds that they continue to work to maintain health conditions in the arrival areas and guarantee temporary and provisional first reception centers that allow alleviating the healthcare pressure on the island.
To address the situation, the Government has called for this Tuesday the meeting of the Interministerial Commission on Immigration, which will be attended in an extraordinary manner by the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo. The call will be chaired by the head of the Ministry of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the president of the Cabildo of El Hierro, Alpidio Armas, will also participate.
In a conversation between the Canary Islands president and the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, the former conveyed to him "the seriousness of the situation that El Hierro is experiencing in the face of migratory pressure and the growing unrest of its population," according to what he himself reported on social networks. "The Canary Islands have been demanding more resources, planning and a coordinated response from the State for months," Clavijo highlighted in a message on X.
