The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León, has warned that "the massive arrival of immigrants in makeshift boats to Lanzarote in these last hours is showing the citizens that the only thing protected is La Mareta, for having Pedro Sánchez and his entourage in its premises". The first mayor of the capital of Lanzarote fears that, after the entry of nearly 80,000 migrants into Ceuta, and given the "passivity of Pedro Sánchez's Government, it is being encouraged for the Canary Islands to be the next massive arrival".
However, irregular arrivals are experiencing a decreasing trend in the Canary Islands with 4,808 irregular entries so far this year compared to 11,883 in the previous year, that is, 59.5% less. The same decrease is observed in the number of boats that arrived on the Canary Islands coasts: 64 compared to 196 in 2025, 65.3% less, according to the latest data collected by the Ministry of the Interior.
The capital's first mayor made these statements to several media outlets on Thursday morning in response to the last three makeshift boats that arrived in Lanzarote with more than two hundred people.
The mayor points out that "the proximity of the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura to the coast of Morocco makes us easily reachable places in the European Union. The citizens are seeing it with their own eyes. In a few hours, 245 people have arrived in Lanzarote, and the Central Government is not allocating resources for these people to be sent back to Morocco. The only thing protected is La Mareta and its coastline, as it is published in the BOE as a navigation exclusion zone".
Yonathan de León asks President Pedro Sánchez and his ministers to "be firm with Morocco. Even the Salvamar boats go into Moroccan waters and disembark them in Arrecife, being closer to Alawite ports, from where these boats depart or navigate, which seem to have Morocco's diplomatic approval to cross and enter Spanish sovereign waters".
"The President of the Government wants citizens to ignore this reality, he continues his holidays at the expense of all Spaniards in Lanzarote, in a protected Royal Palace, and he neither provides resources nor adopts measures so that Morocco does not continue to be the sieve for immigration by makeshift boats to Spain," emphasized the mayor of Arrecife.
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