Dangerous Atlantic Crossings Surge as Migrants Seek Better Life in Spain

Even if several manage to make the crossing, many do not survive. "We have sacrificed a lot to come here, to work, to have a better life," said Mohammed, a Senegalese who lost his two young brothers during the journey, to bbc.com. Mohammed is luckier than Sahé Sephore, only 13 months old, and her mother. Both perished in the Atlantic after the boat that was transporting them hit rocks near the coast of Gran Canaria in May 2019, the same source reports.

"I wouldn’t want this for anyone because it’s not good, but if it’s the only way to earn a decent living, what can we do?" wonders Mohamed Zitouni, a Moroccan who has lived in Spain for 20 years and was looking for his young brother Rahali, on a quay at the southern tip of the island of Gran Canaria where some 2,600 of the 19,000 migrants lived, under tents or sleeping on the street.

For the month of November alone, nearly 7,000 migrants reached the archipelago, which has seen the largest number of migrant arrivals since 2006, the media reports, adding that Ana Oramas, a deputy of the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) party, described the situation in the archipelago as "a powder keg".

The administration is already engaging with some African countries to facilitate the repatriation of migrants, said Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. "We are not going to make the Canaries a Moria," said Hana Jalloul, Spanish Secretary of State for Migration. "This is not our style of migration policy," she stressed.