Over 1,600 African Migrants Cross Sea To Spain as Europe Braces for Influx

By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Europe was bracing for another influx of people fleeing war and persecution, and poverty as over 1,600 African migrants were reportedly rescued at sea or reached Spain’s Canary Islands over the weekend.

Spanish emergency services said About 1,000 arrived migrants arrived on Saturday alone, setting out about 20 barely seaworthy boats.

The body of one person who had died during the perilous journey was recovered by rescuers in waters near the island of El Hierro, Canary Islands emergency authorities said. Another person was airlifted by helicopter to a local hospital for an unspecified health problem.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of migrants from West Africa trying to reach the Canary Islands in recent months.

The island chain is just 100km (60 miles) off the coast of North Africa.

Authorities said the Canary Islands have received over 11,000 migrants so far this year, and the Atlantic route has become the deadliest seaborne path to reach Europe. More than 600 people are dead or missing people, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Arrivals in 2020 were still low compared to the 30,000 migrants who reached the islands in 2006, observes said.

But they are at their highest in over a decade since Spain stemmed the flow of sea arrivals to just a few hundred a year through deals with West African countries.

In Italy, 238 migrants who reached the tiny island of Lampedusa were reportedly in mandatory preventative quarantine Sunday aboard an unused passenger ferry.

The ship was put into service as part of the country’s measures against the spread of COVID-19. The migrants are among around 2,200 who arrived on Lampedusa island over the past week, Italian media said.

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