More than 400 migrants in one day – Canary Island declares a state of emergency

The small Canary island of El Hierro declared a social emergency at the end of last week due to numerous migrant boats arriving. The island authorities warn of a collapse.

In a decree, the island council (Cabildo) asked the Canary Islands regional government and the Spanish central government for more staff and to replace the sea rescue, health service, police and aid organizations.

According to the state sea rescue service Salvamento Marítimo, 449 people reached the island by the afternoon on Saturday alone. With just under 12,000 inhabitants, El Hierro is the smallest of the seven main islands of the Canary Islands.

They came in five wooden boats in which they had crossed from West Africa. According to “El País”, 743 migrants arrived on all of the Canary Islands together on Saturday, and there have been almost 4,000 since the beginning of the month.

“The society of El Hierro is very concerned about this sharp increase,” said island President Alpidio Armas. The island cannot move people to other islands quickly enough: “We receive more people than we can send to Tenerife by ship or plane.”

The Canary Islands regional president Fernando Clavijo called the situation on El Hierro “absolutely untenable”. Everything indicates that it will get worse. The regional government called on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to take the lead and reinforce security forces and medical staff.

The storm “Bruna” caused additional concern at the weekend. The state weather service Aemet predicted waves up to four meters high. The regional government warned that the Atlantic route could become a “death trap”. The Forensic Medicine Institute in Santa Cruz de Tenerife announced a special operation in the event that boats arrive with dead people.

The Atlantic route, on which boats mainly depart from Senegal, is considered one of the deadliest migration routes in the world. According to figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, arrivals to the Canary Islands fell by 67 percent in the first half of the year.

The trend has been reversed since July: 6,194 people crossed the sea in October, almost five times as many as in the same month last year. Since the beginning of the year, the number at the end of October was 13,327, but still 772 below the same period last year.

On Tuesday in Madrid, the Migration Commission, a body made up of seven ministers, will address the situation on El Hierro. Armas also wants to take part in this meeting. Armas relies on new reception centers. According to him, Madrid has already opened two in Tenerife, with another one in Gran Canaria soon to follow.