494 migrants adrift rescued on the island of El Hierro

Madrid. On the same day that the Spanish Prime Minister, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, completed a brief tour of three African countries, one of the most intense days was recorded on the island of El Hierro, in the Canary Islands, when 494 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were located and rescued adrift in four small wooden boats. Many of them arrived with signs of dehydration and were very weak, so they were immediately transferred to the temporary reception centre on the small island, where up to 700 people have already accumulated, who are waiting to be transferred to other facilities in better conditions.

The drama of migration does not cease on the Spanish coasts. The so-called “Canary route” has become the preferred route for migrants trying to reach European soil, many of them from countries at war and impoverished by decades of armed conflict, droughts and natural disasters. Many of them come from Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and Gambia.

One of the smallest islands in the Canary Islands, El Hierro, received up to 494 people in just one day, who were located thanks to the radar of the Spanish Maritime Rescue vessels, which placed the four vessels about nine miles south of the island. From there they were escorted to the dock to disembark and be immediately treated by the emergency medical team on duty.

This new mass arrival caused even more overcrowding at the Temporary Reception Centre for Foreigners (CATE) in El Hierro, in the town of San Andrés, where there are already a total of 701 migrants waiting to be transferred to other facilities outside the island. In addition, the Red Cross installed nearly 200 camp beds in the San Andrés sports centre, next to the centre, in anticipation of new arrivals to the island in the coming hours and days.

Meanwhile, President Sánchez concluded his tour of three African countries – Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal – with a message that the left allied to his government, especially Podemos and Sumar, described as close to the ideas of the right. The Spanish president defended the “repatriation” of migrants who arrived in Spain “irregularly” and who currently do not have their administrative situation in order, as defended by both the right-wing Popular Party (PP) and the extreme right of Vox, although the latter advocates a mass expulsion.

Spain was the fifth country in the European Union (EU) that carried out the most expulsions of non-EU migrants in the first quarter of 2024, with more than 2,500 people returned, while orders to leave the country were issued for more than 1,500 people arriving irregularly, according to the latest data from Eurostat. In total, until April 2024, EU Member States expelled 30,570 non-EU migrants, 11.4 percent more than in the same period of the previous year.