More than 1,700 migrants died on the Canary Islands route in 2022

The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands claimed the lives of 1,784 migrants during 2022. For the fourth consecutive year, the Canary Islands route has been the deadliest route to Spain, according to Caminando Fronteras. In total, 2,390 people died on the way to Spain.

This is stated in the annual report of deaths in their migratory journey to Spain through the western Euro-African border of the Human Rights Observatory of this group, which accounts for "the increasingly dangerous trend of migratory routes in recent years" and specifies that of the total number of deaths, 288 were women and 101 were children.

The NGO comments that the number of deaths in 2022, slightly higher than in 2020, is in line with the trend of increasing deaths in the last five years on all routes, both maritime and land, of access to Europe through Spain, although it recalls that "2021 was a fatal year, with 4,639 people dying, linked to the shock due to the exponential increase in the use of the Canary Islands route".

Once again, in 2022, the route between the western North African coasts and the Canary Islands stands out as the deadliest, with the aforementioned 1,784 victims, according to the report, which attributes it to "migration policies that hinder, obstruct or directly omit to put in place rescue mechanisms for migrants".

In addition, the group regrets that "seven months after the tragedy at the fence between Nador (Morocco) and Melilla, in which 40 people died, the case remains unpunished".

On the other hand, the report highlights "the systematic invisibilization of the Algerian route, between the coasts of northern Algeria and the Spanish Levant and Balearic Islands, in which at least 464 people have lost their lives in 2022".

"The delay in the notification of missing boats added to the distance and danger of the route and the omission of rescues places migrants from Algeria and their families in a situation of special vulnerability," warns Caminando Fronteras.

The study details that the majority of the victims of migratory routes die without their bodies ever being found, 91.42 percent, "which has a terrible impact on their families due to the impossibility of making a complete mourning and due to the legal and psychological implications".