One of every 5 migrants who dies en route in the world perishes en route to the Canary Islands

The affirmation that the Canarian Route has become the most dangerous migratory route It is no longer just a generalized appreciation among those who work in it, it is a fact: one in five deaths or missing persons accounted for in the world by the International Organization for Migration in 2021 he perished in the Atlantic en route to the islands.

According to the data collected by this agency United Nations through the program “Missing Migrants”, In 2021, 5,795 people died on the road while migrating elsewhere: 2,048 in the Mediterranean, 1,488 in Africa, 1,248 in the Americas, 779 in East Asia, 133 in Europe and 99 in West Asia.

Those responsible for the IOM have been following for some time in detail what is happening in the Canary Islands, because the evolution of the different maritime routes that lead to the islands by boat, canoe or inflatable boat from the West African coast is alarming.

In 2017, the Ruta Canaria contributed a single deceased to the list of migrants who died on the road published by Missing Migrants, a single victim out of the total balance of 1,669 lives lost that year throughout Africa (excluding the Mediterranean, which has a separate account).

Since then, deaths on the Atlantic Route They haven’t stopped growing. 43 in 2018, 202 in 2019, 877 in 2020 and 1,109 last year, according to figures provided to Efe by those responsible for the program, who always specify that their count should be taken as a minimum, because it only includes cases in which recovers the corpse (very few) and those others in which, although the body remained in the sea, there are testimonies of the survivors.

In fact, they acknowledge that are aware that many “silent shipwrecks” escape them, of boats that disappeared with all their occupants at sea, without anyone being able to tell what happened to them, which explains why the count made by some NGOs is much higher.

The group Caminando Fronteras, for example, estimates the balance of the Atlantic Route in 2021 at 4,016 deaths, taking as a reference the notices provided by the families who one day left for the Canary Islands, without ever being heard from again.

The historical series of “Missing Migrants”, which begins in 2014, shows that, in the case of Africa, the Atlantic has killed many more people in recent times than the crossing through the Sahara desert, which was traditionally the most dangerous point on the continent for migrants, with 5,260 deaths in the last eight years, for 2,660 of the Canarian Route, 525 in the crossings of the Horn of Africa to Yemen or 144 at the crossings of the Comoros Islands to Mayotte (French department in the Indian Ocean).

That’s what the accumulated figures say, but the partial the last two years and so far in 2022 are clear: deaths to the Canary Islands were 71% of those recorded on the African routes in 2020 (877 out of 1,230), 74% in 2021 (1,109 out of 1,488) and 88% in the first quarter of 2021 (148 out of 168, without counting the 25 deaths from the last canoe on El Hierro, known after closing those numbers).

What is the weight of the Canarian Route in tickets to Europe? According to the numbers published by the European Border and Coast Agency, Frontex, last year 194,948 people entered the territory of the Twenty-seven irregularly: 22,504 through the Spanish Atlantic islands, 18,254 through the Western Mediterranean, 65,362 through the Central and 20,373 for the Oriental, 60,540 for the Balkans and 7,915 for the Eastern republics.

Namely, Canary Islands was in 2021 the gateway to Europe for 11.5% of all migrants who entered the EU irregularly via land or coastal borders. If the focus is restricted to arrivals by sea, the Canary Islands received 17.7% of the 126,493 entries recorded in 2021.

Cross-reference the IOM data on missing persons with the arrival balances of Frontex shows that last year one person lost his life en route to the Canary Islands for every 20.3 who reached land (4.9%, 1,109 out of 22,504). This rate doubles the mortality of Mediterranean crossings, which together amounts to one victim for every 50.7 survivors (1.9%, 2,048 out of 103,989).

and in that Atlantic Route to European “El Dorado” Not only adults leave their lives. The IOM figures also include at least 26 children and adolescents killed trying to reach the Canary Islands in 2021 and seven in the first quarter of 2022.

It is something that is not surprising either, if one takes into account that at this time One of every seven immigrants who arrive in the archipelago in a boat has not reached the age of 18 (14%), according to data provided to Efe by the Red Cross. In the three months of 2022 alone, 42 infants, 88 children from three to eleven years old and 585 adolescents from twelve to 17 years old have landed on the islands.