Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE) ) and on the so-called Algerian Route to Levante and the Balearic Islands (102, one every two days).
This is the balance presented in the report regularly published by the Caminando Fronteras collective, the “Right to Life Monitoring”, which warns that some of the routes, “especially the Canary Islands”, are increasing “their deadly capacity”, despite that the official figures reflect a decrease in the number of arrivals by boat.
12,192 people arrived until June 30
From January 1 to June 30, the statistics of the Ministry of the Interior show that 12,192 people have arrived in Spain by boat, cayucos or inflatable boats, 4.17% less than in 2022. Of these, 4,865 correspond to the Strait of Gibraltar , the Alboran Sea and the Balearic Islands (29.2% more) and 7,213 to the Canary Islands Route (18.5% less).
The collective of the activist Helena Maleno, who regularly notifies the authorities of boat departures both in the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean, has recorded 49 tragedies in boats bound for Spain in these six months: 28 in the Canary Islands, eleven in the Strait, eight on the Algerian Route and two in the Alboran Sea, in which at least 112 women and 49 boys and girls have perished.
The deadliest month was June, with 332 victims; followed by February, with 237; January, with 138; and April, with 130.
In 14 cases, the boats involved in these tragedies disappeared with all their occupants.
Citizens of 14 countries
According to Caminando Fronteras, in these six months citizens of 14 countries have died in boats to Spain: Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea, Ethiopia, Comoro Islands, Mali, Morocco, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Syria, Sri Lanka and Sudan.
The report goes beyond the count of lives lost and makes an analysis of what is happening on the different routes, with very critical conclusions for both Spain and Morocco.
This NGO maintains that the fatalities of the maritime routes to Spain are increasing (according to its count, they are 13 more than those of the first half of 2022) despite the fact that the flow of small boats has decreased because, sometimes, the means are not put necessary search or rescue operations are activated with a delay.
Coordination between countries
It also denounces “poor coordination between the countries that must activate the relief services.” “In the case of Spain and Morocco, the coordination is not based on the right to life, but on bilateral migration control negotiations,” he adds.
As an example, they cite the shipwreck of a pneumatic boat that occurred on June 21 about 160 kilometers south of Gran Canaria, in which 36 people died, with only two bodies recovered.
The day before, around 8:00 p.m., a Spanish plane located it and at that moment there was a Maritime Rescue ship, the Guardamar Calliope, helping another zodiac just 46 kilometers away, an hour away. However, they emphasize, Spain transferred the coordination of that rescue to Morocco, whose patrol boat did not arrive until ten hours later, when the pneumatics had already collapsed.
“Spain prefers to transfer responsibility to Morocco for the protection of life. The Spanish rescue services were closer, with more means and, despite having been able to prevent the deaths, they withdrew so that Morocco would assume the coordination”, denounces this report by Caminando Fronteras, which speaks directly to this tragedy of a case of “Failure to provide relief”.
This NGO criticizes that it is not always assumed that a boat in the open sea, generally overloaded with people, is an unsafe vessel, exposed to a serious risk (Salvamento claimed in the case of the pneumatic boat that it did not know that its occupants were in danger).
“This only applies to migrants, but this is not the case when other groups, such as fishermen or people on pleasure yachts, are at risk,” he argues.
The NGO also speaks of “institutional racism”, based on the treatment suffered, for example, by the occupants of a boat rescued in May in the south of Gran Canaria, whose occupants reported upon disembarking that they had been shot on their way out, in Cape Bojador. , and that two of his companions had died, badly wounded, on the journey.
Caminando Fronteras censures that, despite the fact that at least one of the survivors complained at the Arguineguín dock of having gunshot wounds, all of them were transferred to the Temporary Attention Center for Foreigners of Gran Canaria in conditions of police detention. The next day, two were admitted to hospitals with gunshot wounds, a woman in an arm and a man in a shoulder blade.
They also perceive a “racist bias” in that the search protocols for the victims are not activated in the face of well-known tragedies, such as the one that occurred in March on the Algerian Route, in which several of the corpses were found by fishing boats in the port environment. from Denia (Alicante), entangled in their networks.