Changes in the migration route to the Canary Islands have made Lanzarote the place in the Archipelago with the most arrivals, above Gran Canaria or Fuerteventura and "far above" the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This has been revealed by the annual report of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR).
Departures from the Western Sahara have been "shielded", as have those that had their starting point in Mauritania and Senegal been reduced "significantly". Throughout 2022, the trend of the route from the southern Moroccan cities of Tan Tan and Agadir to Lanzarote was confirmed.
European borders have hardened in the last year in the face of the arrival of migrants. "These are not isolated events, but are beginning to form a structural part of the response of Member States," concludes the annual report presented by CEAR.
According to estimates by the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration, the Canary route claimed the lives of 559 people during 2022, including 22 children. This figure increases in the estimates of the Caminando Fronteras collective to 1,784 people dead or missing in the Atlantic.
There are a total of 35 countries of origin of the people who arrive in the Canary Islands by boat or inflatable boat. The predominant nationalities are Morocco, Senegal, Guinea Conakry and Ivory Coast, which are above Mali or Gambia. Also, in 2022 nearly 300 people arrived from the Comoros, islands located southeast of the African continent, near Tanzania.
The reasons for risking their lives in the crossing range from the absence of a free and dignified vital and labor future to the impossibility of subsisting due to the plunder of the natural resources of their places of origin.
Also noteworthy is the presence of young people and adolescents who were born in countries in conflict in the Sahel region. In addition, between the end of 2019 and 2022, women and children came to represent 30% of arrivals to the islands.
The Canary Islands "exceeds" its reception capacity to develop an adequate process of inclusion and integration. At the beginning of 2023, the Archipelago had 2,181 children distributed in 44 devices spread throughout the islands. In total, 1,748 are located in emergency devices of the Government of the Canary Islands and 433 in devices of the island councils.
CEAR highlights "the exclusive competence in this matter of the autonomous communities and the insufficient territorial solidarity" as the reason why in 2021 only 208 minors could be relocated to other territories of the Spanish State. In 2022, 224 children were relocated, below the 340 transfers proposed at the Sectoral Conference on Children and Adolescents.