The shift in migration comes after the European Union funded Morocco to keep migrants from crossing the Mediterranean Sea to southern Spain, reports Renata Brito.
Although sea arrivals to mainland Spain have decreased by 50% compared to last year, landings in the Canaries have increased by 550% and have not been this high in over a decade.
On August 19, 15 lifeless Malians were spotted inside a wooden boat by a Spanish plane 92 miles from the island of Gran Canaria and towed back to port.
Less than 24 hours later, the AP witnessed one migrant boat rescued and brought to the island with 12 people and four dead. The survivors had witnessed their comrades die along the way.
“It is not normal. A human being shouldn’t do this. But how else can we do it?” That’s what one man, who fled Mali after his father was killed in an extremist attack targeting an army base near his village, told AP.
More than 250 people have died or gone missing in the Atlantic route so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
AP