The year was marked by the jump over the Melilla fence in June in which some twenty people died
At least 29,999 migrants have arrived in Spain irregularly in 2022, according to provisional data made public by the Ministry of the Interior covering between January 1 and December 15 of this year. This figure, according to the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, represents a 23% reduction in tickets compared to the same period of the previous year.
Specifically, they are 8,980 fewer migrants those who have crossed the country’s border through irregular routes in 2022, compared to 2021 and, according to the Interior, this drop is the result of the reduction in arrivals by sea. Especially to the Canary Islands, where tickets have fallen by almost 25%.
The five-year balance sheets published by the Interior on this topic show that the entries of migrants by irregular route to the Canary Islands have been falling throughout the year and, in the last fortnight of September, the values were for the first time, below those collected in 2021.
In the absence of the last 15 days of the year, they have beeno 15,466 migrants who have arrived on the coasts of the archipelago in 2022compared to the more than 22,600 who did so a year earlier.
The entries by sea through the peninsular coast and the Balearic Islands have also decreased, which have gone from 16,001 in 2021, to 12,047 in 2022; and those registered on the Ceuta coast, which have gone from 600 last year to 124 provisionally recorded this year.
Tickets in Melilla rise 310%
On the opposite side are irregular arrivals of migrants by sea to Melillawhich has grown by 310% compared to 2021. Then there were 37 recorded arrivals, while in 2022 there are 152.
This provisional balance of Interior includes the scheme of the last months registered in this matter. Thus, while most of the figures related to entries by sea drop, The arrivals of migrants who cross the fences of Ceuta and Melilla irregularly rise. In the first case it increases by 52% (from 679 in 2021 to 1,037 and 2022) and in the second by 10.8% (from 1,059 in 2021 to 1,1273 in 2022).
fence crisis
These figures include the entry of around 130 migrants who managed to cross to Melilla during the jump over the fence on June 24, which ended with the death of at least twenty people, and numerous injuries. This event has marked the migration policy of the Government in recent months and the Minister of the Interior has had to appear on up to three occasions in Congress to explain what happened.
After the events, NGOs that work with migrants in the area denounced the abusive actions of the security forces and bodies in the event, the transfer of lifeless bodies of migrants from Spanish soil to Moroccan territory or the return at the border of people who may need international protection.
this case too is being investigated by the The Ombudsman, who has also denied the defense that Grande-Marlaska has made of what happened at the border, assured that civil guards had thrown stones at the migrants. In addition, he questioned the health care provided to those who crossed the border.
The actions of the Civil Guard have also been questioned by the deputies of parliamentary groups, belonging to the Interior Commission, who visited the area where these events took place and who have been able to view -behind closed doors in the lower house- the images from the security cameras that recorded the events.