There are already more than 5,000 so far in October, and they reached 14,976 accumulated at the end of September. The flood of senegalese By embarking on the Atlantic route to reach the Canary Islands, they are approaching the record of 31,000 sub-Saharans arriving in the cayucos crisis of 2006.
Was the largest known in Spainalthough of less political severity than the avalanche of 15,000 migrants in 48 hours on Ceuta in May 2021.
Related news
The movement of people between Senegal and the Canary Islands reaches the level of a migratory crisis, although its proportions do not stand up to comparison with that of Italy. In that country, in mid-September there were already more than 123,000 migrants arriving this year; and on the island of Lampedusa There have been record arrivals this summer of 5,000 people in one day; the largest recorded in The iron It has not exceeded 900.
This October 12, 648 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands, crossing the Atlantic from Africa, on a journey of 1,500 kilometers. So far this year, the Atlantic route – which is the most dangerous to reach Spain – It exceeds by 4,500 people the 10,487 that Interior has counted crossing the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea towards the peninsula and the Balearic Islands.
What pushes migrants in this wave of cayucos
Poverty, which is the usual reason, is now joined by a political and a climatological explanation. And both are superimposed on the lethality of the crossing, the worst in the world, with more than 900 deaths in so far this year.
The climatic reason has to do with the period of Atlantic calms, or episodes of low waves, on the journey to the Canary Islands. The autumn return of the wind closes that window of opportunity, and that further urges migrants to try take advantage of the good sea.
But the political factor pushes more.
In August 2022, elections ended with the president of Senegal, Macky Sal, and the opposition proclaiming themselves winners. Since then, instability has not decreased.
Last June, the Street protests against the president left 23 deads, according to Amnesty International. The persecution of opponents intensified throughout the country, causing a flood of exiles that Dakar did little to stop. “In a crisis like this, it doesn’t hurt the power if its enemies leave,” explains a police source who is an expert on African emigration.
Last July, before the situation went into a tailspin, Interior conveyed its fear to its European partners: a wave of migration from Africa was approaching. And Spain urged the EU to agree on a regulation for these situations. Spain has direct contact and information in Senegal, Gambia, Niger and Mauritania, thanks to the agreements that allow it deploy civil guards and police in their territories watching the departure of cayucos.
At the end of July, the imprisonment of the opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, reactivated the sequence of riots and reprisals. Senegal has become a dangerous country for the opposition.
What migrants do when they arrive
All those who have been rescued or intercepted upon their arrival in Spain – now the desperate passage of the canoes that arrive in the Canary Islands – first go through a examination and care of an NGO, usually Red Cross. When they recover from the dehydration and cold of more than 48 hours of crossing – in the case of the current wave, already transferred to other islands – they pass before the Police Immigration agents, who will give them an identity number and They will ask you the first questions: who they are, where they come from, where they go, what vulnerabilities they suffer (elderly, sick, minors, women) … and if they need protection.
The The vast majority of new arrivals request asylum. It is not only what the NGOs can advise them, nor what the migrants who preceded them have recommended over the phone: it is mandatory for the Interior and Social Affairs. find out the vulnerability where the irregularly arrived person is. And among the vulnerability factors is whether you need shelter.
Last year118,482 people requested asylum in Spain, according to the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR). Spain is the third country from which the most asylum requests are requested in Europe, after France and Germany. The European total in 2022 was 963,067 requests. Madrid (47,658 applications), Andalusia (11,722) and Catalonia (10,296) top the list by autonomies.
Senegal is not among the top ten origins of asylum seekers in Spain in 2022, but its violent political instability will make it climb the statistic in 2023.
Why the majority do not obtain legal residency
On average, Only 16% of asylum seekers will be granted it by the Government. They are 22 points less than the European average; but in percentage not in quantity: other countries are not the EU’s external border, and they register many fewer requests.
That is, less than one in four arriving in the Canary Islands in this wave will receive asylum. Refuge is granted to those foreigners who prove they are at risk of death if they return to their country, or in danger of inhuman treatment, persecution and imprisonment for political or religious reasons, race or sexual orientation.
That’s why you’re more likely to get asylum. a woman fleeing the war in Sudan or an Iranian homosexual than a peasant trying to escape poverty in Morocco. The law does not provide asylum for those fleeing from precariousness… which is precisely the reason that prompts practically all immigrants who come to Spain to cross the sea. But it is not clear that this is the case for the majority of passengers in this wave of canoes. Coming from an unstable Senegal, they are closer to the reasons for concession.
Once the asylum process has begun, the law provides for a response from the administration within 60 days. but there is such an accumulation of petitions to be resolved (108,000 last year) that the delay reaches 17 months (average calculated by Eurostat in 2021).
What happens to migrants rejected by Spain
When the authorities finally overcome the bureaucratic jam that causes resolution deadlines to be missedthe granting of asylum or its denial must be notified officially to the person who requests it. And that procedure can become Kafkaesque.
The foreigner pending the granting of asylum can move freely through Spain. But, unable to earn a living under normal conditions, he will not have a fixed address or will not tell the authorities. His last known address will be the Temporary Stay Center where he was taken in. I mean, It will be very difficult to notify you of the expulsion.
Once the refusal is notified, the process is accelerated: Interior has 15 days to agree on the expulsion of the foreigner who entered irregularly and is not granted asylum. And if he summons you for a repatriation flightthis must take off within a maximum of 72 hours, or the call will no longer be valid, as the courts have established.
Police sources have informed EL PERIÓDICO that the Interior is preparing new flights to return migrants from the Canary Islands. The last return flights took place last March.
How the wave of migrants impacts the Canary Islands – State relationship
The rapid arrival of thousands of people to small islands like El Hierro causes a rapid depletion of host resources and, often, nervousness in the population. They tend to take advantage of the forces from the extreme right and left of the political arc, the former to spread xenophobia and denounce laxity of the authorities in the face of an “invasion” or to accuse the latter of the same authorities of arbitrariness and racism with the disadvantaged.
Tension is also growing among politicians. Inside takes adults of migrant concentration points such as the La Restinga dock in El Hierro, to disperse pressure on other islands. But the minors arriving unaccompanied They are an autonomous competition.
The president of the Canary Islands, the nationalist Fernando Clavijo, has cried out against the Government while waiting for Social Affairs to get other communities to accept a distribution of the minors that were accumulating on the islands. The agreement came this week. And she has cried out against the Interior, demanding that a single command be organized to deal with this crisis, as was done in the cayucos crisis of 2006, under the leadership of the vice president of the Government at that time, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega.
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, responded by recalling that his department’s efforts have managed to stop 40% of the canoe departures from the African coasts. They are 7,000 migrants intercepted in Mauritania who were going to travel to the Canary Islandsand 4,000 in Senegal.
Last Wednesday, Marlaska traveled to Nouakchott for the fourth time to ask the authorities for more surveillance of its coasts. AND Next Monday he flies to Canarias, where the last ring of political tension is that of the police forces.
At the La Restinga dock, in the worst moments There is only one civil guard, Clavijo has denounced. The provision of the armed institute in El Hierro has been increased by 18%the Interior has responded, and ten immigration police officers have been commissioned, in addition to riot guards from the Reserve and Security Groups.