At least 50 people die in a ‘cayuco’ en route to the Canary Islands

Spain is experiencing one of the worst crises of arrivals of migrants through the Atlantic in the last years.

An NGO serving migrants has reported that a ‘cayuco’ boat left Mauritania on 2 January was found 13 days later by Moroccan patrols. At least 50 of the people on board (mostly men) had died, but it is not clear how many people had entered the boat trying to reach the Spanish islands.

36 people have been rescued, of which 22 were from Pakistan.

“We alerted all countries sharing rescue waters six days ago, as per our protocol for a missing vessel”, said the NGO Caminando Fronteras, which has also had access to the families and survivors.

For months now, Spanish police authorities have noticed that more and more migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Bangladesh have been risking their lives on the Canary Islands migration route.

The authorities of this Spanish archipelago formed by 7 large islands is going through a grave crisis after the arrival of  43,730 migrants in the year 2024 only, the largest number ever.

Fernando Clavijo, president of the regional government of Canary Islands, has once against sent a message of alarm. “Our state and Europe must act. The Atlantic cannot continue to be Africa’s graveyard”, he said.

Last week, the central government and the Canary Islands gave themselves a period of ten days to finalise this January a text for the extraordinary and timely distribution of migrant minors who have arrived on the islands among the rest of the autonomous communities.

Leaders of evangelical churches in the island and of Christian NGOs working with migrants have expressed their frustration at how the migration crisis is being managed by the authorities.