Current:Home > InvestA Spanish official says spotter planes are helping curtail the number of West African migrant boats-InfoLens
A Spanish official says spotter planes are helping curtail the number of West African migrant boats
View Date:2024-12-23 18:26:37
MADRID (AP) — The deployment of two Spanish surveillance planes to watch for migrant boats heading on the treacherous route from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands has enabled authorities to stop 59 canoes from Senegal and Gambia carrying around 7,200 migrants in the past two months, a senior official said Friday.
The boats that were stopped accounted for around half of those that officials believed would otherwise be heading to the Canary Islands off northwest Africa over that period, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.
The archipelago has witnessed a record number of irregular migrant arrivals this year.
Grande-Marlaska told reporters during a visit to the archipelago that “we have saved lives, because you know that the Canary Islands route is a very dangerous route.” The spotter planes are stationed in Senegal and the Canary Islands, he said.
Grande-Marlaska held talks in the islands with the European Union’s home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, amid continental efforts to help Spain stanch a record number this year of migrants to the Canary Islands.
Johansson said that this year more than 36,000 migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands by sea, more than 4,000 of them unaccompanied minors.
That exceeded the migration numbers of 2006, the last migrant surge in the archipelago, when 31,678 migrants disembarked.
Most of the migrants heading to the Canary Islands come from Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco, officials say.
Their journey is one of the longest and deadliest to Europe. At least 512 people have died so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, though the figure is believed to be a vast undercount.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares began a two-day trip to Senegal and Mauritania on Friday to discuss the Canary Island migration situation with local authorities.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
veryGood! (721)
Related
- All Social Security retirees should do this by Nov. 20
- Spain’s women’s soccer league players call off strike after reaching a deal for higher minimum wage
- How close is Earth to becoming unlivable? Humans push planet to brink, study warns.
- Bryan Kohberger, suspect in murders of 4 Idaho college students, wants cameras banned from the courtroom
- Powerball winning numbers for November 11 drawing: Jackpot hits $103 million
- NFLPA calls for major change at all stadiums after Aaron Rodgers' injury on turf field
- CIA 'looking into' allegations connected to COVID-19 origins
- Elon Musk Reflects on Brutal Relationship With Amber Heard in New Biography
- Louisiana man kills himself and his 1-year-old daughter after a pursuit
- University of North Carolina lifts lockdown after reports of armed person on campus
Ranking
- College Football Playoff snubs: Georgia among teams with beef after second rankings
- Argentine inflation keeps soaring, putting the government on the defensive as elections near
- Wisconsin Senate to vote on firing state’s nonpartisan top elections official
- Whole families drowned in a Libyan city’s flood. The only warning was the sound of the dams bursting
- Chrysler recalls over 200k Jeep, Dodge vehicles over antilock-brake system: See affected models
- Giant vacuums and other government climate bets
- Mitt Romney says he's not running for reelection to the Senate in 2024
- CIA 'looking into' allegations connected to COVID-19 origins
Recommendation
-
Taylor Swift Becomes Auntie Tay In Sweet Photo With Fellow Chiefs WAG Chariah Gordon's Daughter
-
New US sanctions target workarounds that let Russia get Western tech for war
-
Mitt Romney says he's not running for reelection to the Senate in 2024
-
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival expands schedule
-
MLS Star Marco Angulo Dead at 22 One Month After Car Crash
-
Jury deciding fate of 3 men in last trial tied to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot
-
CIA 'looking into' allegations connected to COVID-19 origins
-
Afghan soldier who was arrested at US-Mexico border after fleeing Taliban is granted asylum