A feeling of déjà vu. A year after the Lampedusa migration crisis that sent the illegal immigration counters into overdrive in Italy, it is now the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory off the coast of Morocco, that are experiencing an unusual influx of migrants. According to the Spanish authorities, illegal landings there have jumped by 126% compared to last year.
“Illegal arrivals in the Canaries have seen a growing increase since the beginning of 2023, which continued in the first half of 2024,” explains Jérôme Vignon, a specialist in migration policies at the Jacques Delors Institute. In total, more than 22,000 migrants have landed on the archipelago since the beginning of the year. The majority of them are from Mali (43%) and Senegal (20%), followed by Moroccans (9%) and Mauritanians (8%).
Despite its danger, the West African migration route has become one of the main access routes to Spain due to the instability in the Sahel, particularly in Mali and Senegal, which is causing significant population displacement. According to the Spanish authorities, Mauritania is currently hosting 200,000 refugees.
Calm in Italy
A trend that runs counter to that observed in Italy, which seems to be experiencing a lull. While the central Mediterranean route, between Tunisia and the Italian boot, remains the main corridor to Europe, the authorities have counted only 40,000 arrivals by sea since the beginning of the year, down 64% compared to last year.
Irregular border crossings of the European Union in 2024 compared to the same period in 2023The Echoes
Last summer, the wave of migration had resumed in earnest on the island of Lampedusa, located less than 200 km from the Tunisian and Sicilian coasts. Between July and September 2023, nearly 70,000 illegal immigrants, who had left Tunisia and Libya, had flocked to this 20 square kilometer confetti.
According to the European agency Frontex, in 2023, more than 150,000 migrants will have taken this route, a figure not seen since 2016. The cause is an increase in departures from Tunisia, hit by a major economic and social crisis.
Strengthening of controls in the Mediterranean
Faced with the scale of the wave, Italy had called on the European Union for help. During a visit to Lampedusa in September, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced a plan of ten immediate measures, intended to stem the influx of migrants.
In July 2023, the European Union had also signed an agreement with Tunisia to improve “border management (…), search and rescue operations (…), the fight against migrant trafficking and the return policy”, in exchange for a check for 105 million euros. A decision contested by several associations, notably Médecins sans Frontières, which denounce the violent methods implemented by Tunisia in the management of migrants.
Between January and April 2024, 21,500 exiles were intercepted by Tunisia, up 23% from last year. In June, Italy gave its blessing to the creation of a Tunisian search and rescue (SAR) zone, giving the Tunisian coastguard a larger perimeter to legally intercept migrant boats in international waters. This explains the relative drying up of the migratory tap in the Mediterranean.
Communicating vessels
The tightening of controls in North Africa has undoubtedly had the collateral effect of redirecting certain migratory flows towards the Canaries. “We have always seen migration routes being postponed,” says Jérôme Vignon. Nationals from the Sahel, particularly Malians and Guineans, are now falling back on the West African route, which is less monitored but more dangerous.
Starting from the south of Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal or even Gambia, the crossings can reach 1,500 km, a distance ten times greater than that which separates Tunisia from Lampedusa. “The Canary Islands route is very perilous,” insists Jérôme Vignon. “It is likely that a large proportion of Malian exiles would have chosen another route instead.” Departures also tend to move further and further south, due to the strengthening of controls operated by Morocco.
Despite the increase in illegal entries to the Canaries, the trend is downward at European level. The number of irregular border crossings in the Union fell by 36% in 2024 compared to last year, according to Frontex, which also welcomes a significant decline in illegal crossings along the Western Balkans route (-75%).
