Spain's Canary Islands received record 46,843 migrants in 2024: ministry
The landmark came as the European country received 63,970 irregular migrants last year, the vast majority in the Atlantic archipelago, up from 56,852 in 2023, the interior ministry said.
Spain has moved to the forefront of the European Union's migration crisis as tighter controls in the Mediterranean push more migrants to attempt the perilous trip from west Africa to the Canaries.
EU border agency Frontex has said irregular crossings into the bloc from January to November 2024 fell 40 percent overall. But they grew 19 percent on the Atlantic route, with Mali, Senegal and Morocco the most common nationalities.
Thursday's figures confirmed data published in December that showed the record for annual migrant arrivals by boat in the Canaries had been broken for the second year running by November.
Last year's arrivals surpassed the 39,910 migrants who reached the islands off northwestern Africa by sea in 2023, a level that had smashed the previous record from 2006.
The national figure for 2024 fell short of the all-time record of 64,298 arrivals set in 2018 but exceeded the 56,852 migrants who reached Spain illegally in 2023.
Thousands of deaths
A report last week by NGO Caminando Fronteras said at least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea from January 1 to December 5, 2024.
Caminando Fronteras said it was a 50-percent increase on 2023 and the highest toll since its tallies began in 2007, attributing it to the use of ramshackle boats, dangerous waters and a lack of resources for rescues.
"The loss of a single life is a cause for sadness and we regret every one of them," the migration ministry told AFP in reaction to the report.
"This government maintains a transversal policy that prioritises human rights and works in collaboration with other ministries and countries of origin and transit to promote regular and safe migration."
Local authorities in the Canaries say they are overwhelmed by the waves of arrivals. Spain's political parties however have failed to agree a plan to distribute thousands of unaccompanied minors nationwide to ease the burden.
Government minister Angel Victor Torres criticised the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) for the impasse.
The children would be going to school, "learning our language and integrating into our society" if the PP adopted an attitude of "true solidarity", Torres told Cadena SER radio on Thursday.
Rising numbers
Spain, a major gateway to Europe along with Italy and Greece, has emerged as an outlier on European migration policy despite the crisis.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defends the necessity of migration to support the welfare state and workforce needs as Europe's population ages.
His successive leftist governments since 2018 have eased regularisation rules for illegal migrants in Spain, even as far-right parties with anti-immigration platforms have surged in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and beyond.
Sanchez last year embarked on a tour of Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia, the main departure points for Spain-bound boats, to promote local efforts to curb illegal migration.
PP spokesman Borja Semper slammed the government for presiding over rising immigration numbers while levels were falling in other frontline countries such as Italy.
The government uses immigration "frivolously, because there is no policy, and when it puts forward something it's behind a banner", he told reporters.