Initial Illegal Migrants Reach Canary Islands in 2025; Two Fatalities Reported
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Madrid, Jan 2 (NationPress) Spanish Maritime Rescue services reported on Thursday that a total of 366 illegal migrants reached Spain on the very first day of 2025, with 268 of them arriving in the Spanish-administered Canary Islands located in the Atlantic Ocean.
A further 98 migrants landed on the Balearic Islands, which include Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera.
The beginning of the year also marked the first tragedy, as two deceased individuals were found within one of the dinghies that made it to the southern coast of Tenerife (Canary Islands).
The initial migrant arrivals of 2025, utilizing typically fragile wooden boats that are entirely inappropriate for the perilous waters of the Atlantic Ocean, come on the heels of a tumultuous end to 2024.
During the last week of the previous year, 1,933 migrants successfully traversed the treacherous journey from the northwestern coast of Africa to the Canary Islands, which is over 100 kilometers long at its shortest distance, as reported by the Xinhua news agency.
The landing of these 1,933 individuals across 34 boats has stretched the resources of the Canary Islands, prompting the regional government to request assistance from the Spanish central government and the nation’s remaining 16 Autonomous Communities for the relocation of migrants.
From January 1 to December 15, 2024, a total of 60,216 migrants entered Spain irregularly, marking a 14.5 percent increase compared to the same timeframe in 2023, when 52,591 migrants arrived. Of this total, 43,737 migrants made their way to the Canary Islands, according to the latest statistics from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
