So far this year, up until October 15th, 14,720 irregular migrants have arrived on the shores of the Canary Islands which is an increase of 83% in the same period last year, which is 6,691 more people, according to the latest data made public by the Ministry of the Interior in their bi-weekly bulletin.
In 2020 people were up in arms about the volume of people arriving at the islands, who were temporarily housed in tourist accommodation that was closed to the public due to the Covid pandemic, and voiced their opinions on social media, sometimes in some very uncivil like ways.
It is true that the islands weren’t prepared for an ‘explosion’ of arrivals not seen in over a decade, and didn’t have the resources activated to cope with the arrivals, especially with Covid protocols in place, and testing required for all those that made it to the islands.
However, since then reception centres and temporary camps are in place, as are ways of transferring some of the migrants to mainland Europe, back to their own country or integrating them into the Canary Islands system.
According to the report, Spain has exceeded 31,000 irregular immigrants so far 47% of those have come to the archipelago via the ‘Canarian Route’.
