Spain is migrants’ new route of choice
MOROCCO: Spain could surpass Greece this year as a gateway for migrants entering Europe by sea, international monitors have warned as the number of arrivals swells to treble that of 2016.
Amid a crackdown on migration through Libya, more than 8000 people have turned to the so-called Western Mediterranean Route from Morocco into Spain this year, compared with 2500 during the same period in 2016.
On Thursday, sunbathers on a beach near Cadiz were shocked to see a black rubber dinghy loaded with migrants landing on the shore, its occupants quickly leaping out and running away.
Jose Maraver, head of the Maritime Rescue centre in nearby Tarifa, said a second boat landed on another beach in the area yesterday, while two vessels had to be rescued.
‘‘Every day there are boats, every day there is migration,’’ he said.
African migrants are also increasingly setting their sights on Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, which has seen a 230 per cent rise in arrivals in recent weeks. On Thursday, authorities closed the border for a week to cope with the surge, after a string of mass incursions through its security fence.
On Tuesday, almost 200 migrants stormed the double fence and ran through security checkpoints. One officer suffered a broken leg in the stampede.
Yesterday, a group of about 700 sub-saharan Africans tried to break through but were pushed back by Moroccan police, officials said. An earlier attempt by about 1000 migrants, armed with sticks and home-made spears, was thwarted by officers from both countries.
On Thursday, twelve migrants arrived in Ceuta’s waters on jetskis, one of them - a 28-year-old Guinean man - drowning before authorities reached him.
Spain had already received more arrivals this year - almost 8200 - than in the whole of 2016, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
Italy remains by far the biggest gateway, accounting for 85 per cent of arrivals by sea since the start of 2017, with more than 96,400. But Spain is catching up with Greece, where 11,713 have landed. ‘‘It’s possible that Spain will outperform Greece this year,’’ IOM spokesman Joel Millman said.
Conditions in Libya and a policy by the Libyan coastguard of blocking migrant boats heading to Italy may be behind the surge.
- Telegraph Group