Over a Thousand Migrants Land in Spain’s Canary Islands

Spain’s Canary Islands saw the largest number of migrant arrivals since 2006 in the past 48 hours, the Red Cross said on Saturday.

Between Thursday and Saturday, 1,015 people landed in 485 boats in the seven Spanish islands, a Red Cross spokesman said. {snip}

Spain had seen a surge of sea migration in recent years, but the flow of arrivals had diminished nearly 5.8% between January and September. Arrivals to the Canary Islands, however, have surged by 523.7%, Interior Ministry data shows.

Most of the migrants came from North Africa or sub-Saharan African nations. {snip}

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As Morocco has tightened security on its Mediterranean coast, traffickers and migrants have been pushed to risk the perilous crossing to the Canaries, which is located around 60 miles (97 km) to the west of the Atlantic coast, analysts and rights groups say.

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