A total of 4,929 immigrants arrived last year aboard boats to the coasts of Lanzarote, while eight lost their lives trying to reach the island. This is reflected in the figures collected by the Cabildo Data Center, which show an increase of 550% in the arrival of immigrants compared to 2020, when 891 arrived on the island. That year there were even more deaths, with a total of 9 deaths.
Regarding the boats, in 2021 there were 137, compared to 40 the previous year. In fact, the island has not recorded similar figures in the entire last decade. In 2019, 29 boats with 379 immigrants were counted; in 2018 there were 45 boats with 741 migrants; and in previous years there were no more than 10 boats, with between two and nine per year. Furthermore, another difference is that fewer people traveled in each one than they do now.
In addition to this, more and more women are undertaking this journey. Of the almost 5,000 people who arrived in Lanzarote in 2021, a total of 3,852 were men and 463 were women, while 606 were minors, some of them young children and babies.
By months, the most intense by far in the arrival of boats was September, with a total of 38, in which 1,377 people traveled. Next were October and November, with 23 and 21 boats respectively, in which 909 and 934 people traveled.
At the opposite extreme was February, when only one boat arrived with 22 occupants.
As for the deceased, four were registered in June, three in August and one more in September, according to figures published by the Data Center.
