A total of 708 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands by boat during the first month of 2020, which is almost 18 times more than in the same period of 2019, when 40 arrived until January 31, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
According to these figures, 320 migrants arrived in the first half of the month, and another 388 in the second. These more than 700 migrants have entered Spain irregularly aboard 23 boats, twenty more than arrived during the month of January 2019.
The arrival of people in boats has only increased on the sea route to the Canary Islands, since the number of people arriving to the rest of the areas (peninsular, Balearic, Ceuta and Melilla coasts) has been reduced compared to the same period last year.
Decrease in the whole of Spain
Thus, despite the increase towards the Canary Islands, the total number of arrivals by sea to Spain so far in 2020 has decreased by more than half (54.9%) compared to 2019. This year 1,850 people have arrived by sea irregularly, while last year until January 31, 4,104 did so.
Specifically, the arrivals of migrants by sea to the peninsula and the Balearic Islands have been reduced by almost 72%, going from 3,994 migrants in the first half of January 2019 to 1,121 in the first fifteen days of 2020.
Likewise, sea arrivals to Ceuta have been reduced by 66.7%, since between January 1 and 31, 2020, 21 migrants have entered, compared to 63 during the first month of 2019. No one has arrived by sea to the Melilla coasts, compared to the seven who did so in the first fifteen days of 2019.
Land entries increase slightly
Regarding irregular entries by land --which includes jumps to the border fences with Morocco, entries through the undercarriage of trucks and in car trunks, among other forms--, they have increased very slightly by 1.4%, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior. So far this year, a total of 515 have been counted, compared to 508 in the same period last year.
Specifically, a total of 52 migrants have arrived in Ceuta by land so far in 2020, compared to 70 during the first month of 2019; and 463 in Melilla, which is 5.7% more than in the same period last year.
In total, if the data on arrivals by sea and land are added, a decrease of almost half (48.7%) is observed compared to the number of migrants who entered Spain irregularly in the first 31 days of 2020. Thus, 2,365 have arrived, compared to the 4,612 who arrived as of January 31, 2019.
