AA / Ovideo, Espagne / Alyssa McMurtry
Spain has broken a new record for arrivals of irregular migrants in 2024, with 63,970 people entering Spanish territory illegally by land or sea, according to data from the Interior Ministry made public on Thursday.
This is the second year in a row that Spain has broken its own arrivals record.
In 2023, the toll was 55,718, almost double the number recorded in 2022.
In 2024, the vast majority of irregular arrivals — 46,843 — made the perilous journey by sea from northwest Africa to the Canary Islands in Spain.
A report published in December by the NGO “Caminando Fronteras” estimates that on average 30 people lose their lives every day trying to reach Spain in 2024.
Nearly 10,000 candidates lost their lives trying to reach the Canary Islands.
The president of the Canary Islands, under Spain, has highlighted the region’s inability to handle the influx, particularly with regard to minors, saying services are saturated and unable to treat them with dignity or compliance human rights obligations.
In an interview with Spanish television channel RTVE on Thursday, Spanish Migration Minister Elma Saiz said the government was working to reach an agreement that would automatically redistribute young migrants across the continent.
Saiz also highlighted that in 2025 the new immigration law will come into force in the country. It should make it possible to regularize around 300,000 undocumented immigrants per year over the next three years.
“The year 2025 will mark Spain as a model of inclusion and cohabitation with migrants,” she said.
The minister welcomed the EU migration pact, concluded in 2024, which she said will be implemented in 2025.
The other main migration route to Spain was through the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, which recorded almost 14,500 arrivals in 2024.
A significant increase was also seen in migrants crossing the land border into Ceuta, Spain’s North African enclave, where more than 2,500 people crossed in 2024, more than double the number recorded in 2023.
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