“You can die at any time” – migration crisis in the Canary Islands

“You can die at any moment” – thanks to Corona, the Canary Islands became an access point for refugees

Due to the Corona crisis, the situation for refugees has worsened: many have lost their jobs and are stranded in rescue centers.

The devastated Moria, migrants in distress off Italy or on the border river between Turkey and Greece: images like these shape reports on the fate of migrants. But some 4,000 kilometers from the burning Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, a new crisis is brewing in the Atlantic. Since the beginning of the year, almost 14,000 migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain, off the west coast of Africa. According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, that was almost seven times more than in the same period last year.

The archipelago should not become one of the Lampedusa of Spain, recently warned the deputy head of Government of the Canary Islands, Román Rodríguez. With 2.15 million inhabitants, the Canary Islands is much larger than Lampedusa, where only 4,500 people live. But the number of incoming immigrants is similar. More than 2,200 people came from Saturday to Monday morning alone. Since January, 16,000 people have arrived by boat on the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy.

The journey from Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the most dangerous of all. People start in Morocco, Senegal, the Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau or even Guinea, some 2,400 kilometers away. Most open wooden boats are only powered by an outboard motor and can hardly do anything to counter the stormy seas of the Atlantic. According to information from the United Nations Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 414 people died this year, double the number of the previous year.

“You can die at any moment,” says Papa Diop Sarr, a Senegalese fisherman who wants to start over after a failed attempt. Having to leave the whole family behind is an incentive to fight for a better life in Europe. “But we leave without knowing what opportunities or difficulties we will find.”

The true extent of tragedies at sea is likely to be worse than known. “Due to the very low success rate, only a few people make it to the Canary Islands,” writes the IOM. It is unknown how many people start the journey in West Africa and how many do not make it alive. The Spanish media reported on a 17-year-old Moroccan boy. He said that of the 26 people on board his ship, 16 died of thirst during the odyssey across the Atlantic. He and the others should have thrown them overboard, including six of his cousins.

“One concern is the risk of dying,” says Nassima Clerin, IOM Senegal’s expert on migrant protection. “But there are also concerns and fears about what will happen to the people who actually make it.” In the Canary Islands, the situation of the port city of Arguineguín in the southwest of Gran Canaria is the most difficult. More than 2,000 newcomers packed the dock last weekend, camped outdoors and slept on concrete, hygienic conditions were poor.

Migrants should register there within 72 hours and be tested for the corona virus. But the authorities are overwhelmed and discontent among the population is growing. There are already demonstrations against an alleged “invasion,” complaining that the state is doing too much for migrants and too little for locals affected by the corona pandemic. Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska announced during a visit by EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson that the reception center at the port would be closed and relocated to the barracks.

But what drives more and more people to risk their lives? Experts believe that, among other things, it has to do with the change in migration routes, also due to crown-related border closures. All Sahel countries closed during the pandemic, says Matt Herbert of the think tank at the Institute for Security Studies. The Algerian closures were particularly long and effective. The route from Niger or Mali to Algeria could hardly be used. In Morocco, the authorities have also acted more strongly against migration in cooperation with the EU, explains Bram Frouws of the Joint Migration Center.

The pandemic has made it difficult for many migrants to travel, but it has also increased the plight of people and the desire to emigrate. Because the Corona crisis has robbed many of their livelihoods. The African Development Bank forecast in July that 25 million Africans could lose their jobs this year. In Senegal, for example, which relies heavily on tourism, economic growth will fall from 5.3 percent in 2019 to 1.3 percent this year, according to the World Bank.

The Senegalese Gallic sow is one of the many that suffers from it. The young man ran a small business in the port city of Saint Louis, in the north of the West African country, according to El País newspaper. There he sold bracelets, necklaces, shoes and clothes and gave courses on the yembé drum on the side. During the tourist season you could earn the equivalent of 4,500 euros. But from one day to the next it all ended.

Due to the pandemic, a curfew was imposed and tourists stayed away. Sow could no longer support his mother and brothers, he sold a piece of land, grabbed his younger brother and got on a fishing boat heading to the Canary Islands with 66 other people. “All those who worked in tourism, in hotels, tourist guides and merchants, lost their livelihood,” the man told the newspaper shortly after his arrival in Tenerife. If you’re lucky, you can stay and you might even end up on the Spanish mainland. Otherwise, it could end up on one of the deportation flights to Mauritania, which resumed on Tuesday after a hiatus since March.

Most migrants arriving in the Canary Islands hope, according to IOM expert Clerin, to come to the peninsula or even travel further to other European countries. But due to the situation in Corona, it is currently difficult to reach the mainland, many migrants stayed in the Canary Islands. “You’re basically stranded there.” (cki / sda / dpa)