Every 45 minutes a migrant loses his life trying to reach Spain by boat

Total of 4,808 immigrants They lost their lives trying to reach Spain via boats or Cayucos from January to May The Canary RouteThat equates to about 32 deaths a day, or one every 45 minutes, according to data compiled by the group walking limitations through families.

Although it’s been a while since United Nations Points out the various navigation routes that lead to the Canary Islands from the coast of Africa As the deadliest migrant route in the world, the figures presented by Caminado Fronteras this Wednesday are unprecedented: in just five months they have reached close to counting 6,007 died According to the same Spanish NGO, the 2023 fiscal year is complete.

If these figures are combined with the arrival data published by Ministry of Interior17,117 people as of May 31, it is observed that one immigrant for every 3.5 people rescued on boats headed to the Canary Islands in these five months has died or gone missing. In 2023, when all arrival records were broken with 39,910, the same rate was one death for every 6.6 survivors.

New version of the report ‘Monitoring the right to life on the western Euro-African border’ Caminado Fronteras estimates that in the first five months of the year there were 5,054 deaths of immigrants on sea routes to Spain, or 33 per day.

To the 4,808 deaths on the Canary Islands route, the NGO adds 175 deaths on the Algerian route (from Algeria to the Balearic Islands and the Levantine coast), 47 in the Alboran Sea and 24 in the Strait of Gibraltar.

The deaths on the boats headed to Spain and in Cayucos include at least 154 women and 50 boys and girls.

47 boats missing with all their passengers

Data collected by Caminado Fronteras, in contact with migrants and their families, shows that in these five months 47 boats have disappeared with all their passengers, with April being the deadliest month, with 1,197 lives lost, followed by February with 1,090. There were 970 in January, 915 in February and 882 in May.

Within the Canary Route, this NGO had been warning since the beginning of the year about a large number of canoes that were disappearing in the Atlantic after leaving the coast. Mauritania (One of them was found on the other side of the ocean, off the coast of Brazil, on April 15, with nine bodies).

Their data indicates that most of the lives lost in the Atlantic this year are due to canoe abandonment Noakhali, Nouadhibou or other points on the Mauritanian coast: 3,600. Another 959 people lost their lives in canoes Senegal or Gambia and 249 more in boats or inflatables that sail from there Sahara and Moroccoabout 1,000 km of coastline in the middle Guelmim and Dakhla,

Caminado Fronteras said in its report that in recent months, canoe departures from Senegal and Gambia, the southern end of the Canary Route, have decreased “significantly”.

However, the number of people in Mauritania is skyrocketing, with Cayucos consisting of citizens of various nationalities but mainly from the countries of. Sahel StripWhich means that the Mauritanian Route remains very active even in the worst winters.

“In previous years (in winter) a decrease in boat departures could be observed, but in these months it has been maintained even in the worst weather conditions,” says the NGO, which denounces that sometimes the activation of rescue means or coordination between countries fails, because “immigration control” is given priority over saving lives.

Counting the first five months of 2024, 17 countries are victims: Algeria, Burundi, Burkina, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Comoros Islands, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan and, outside Africa, Pakistan.

Media and images are missing

The Spanish NGO also draws attention to what is happening there Algerian RouteBecause the number of deaths recorded in these months is double that of 2023 on the same date.

The number of victims in the Alboran Sea is also rising by 50 percent, and all deaths in the Strait of Gibraltar are of people attempting to swim across the Gibraltar maritime border. Ceuta,

Caminado Fronteras says that this increase in deaths on migrant routes is influenced by factors such as the lack of search and rescue means in places like Mauritania or, in their opinion, delays in the arrival of rescue means sometimes activated from Spain.

“There is a great deal of arbitrariness in the decision to activate rescue services and the means that are used to save lives on the move. Despite knowing the exact location of the ship’s crash, the necessary search and rescue means are not being activated,” he adds.

NGOs say conditions such as the overloaded condition in which many boats leave, their poor safety conditions or the long journeys they face without the necessary means to travel also play a role.