A record 46,843 people reached the Canary Islands illegally in 2024 via the increasingly deadly Atlantic route, the second consecutive year of unprecedented arrival numbers, according to official data.
Last year Spain received a total of 63,970 irregular migrants, the vast majority in the Atlantic archipelago, up from 56,852 in 2023, the interior ministry said on Thursday.
Spain has moved to the forefront of the EU’s migration crisis as tighter controls in the Mediterranean push more people to attempt the perilous trip from west Africa to the Canary Islands.
EU border agency Frontex has said irregular crossings into the bloc from January to November 2024 fell 40% overall but rose by 19% on the Atlantic route, with Mali, Senegal and Morocco accounting for the most common nationalities.
Thursday’s figures confirmed data published in December that showed the record for annual migrant arrivals by boat in the Canary Islands had been broken for the second year running in November.
Last year’s arrivals surpassed the 39,910 migrants who reached the islands 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 people who reached Spain illegally in 2023.
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 1 January to 5 December 2024.
Caminando Fronteras said the death toll was a 50% increase on 2023 and the highest since its tallies began in 2007. It attributed the rise to the use of ramshackle boats, dangerous waters and a lack of resources for rescuers.
