At least 6,618 migrants died or disappeared in 2023 while trying to reach Spain, or 18 per day on average, the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras said on Tuesday. This figure, which has practically tripled (+177%) compared to that of 2022, is “the highest” recorded by the NGO since the start of its censuses, its coordinator, Helena Maleno, denounced to the press. ‘rising against “the lack of resources” of rescuers at sea.
For comparison, an NGO report published last year identified 11,200 migrants who died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain between 2018 and 2022, or six per day on average. This jump in migratory tragedies comes as the number of migrants arriving illegally in Spain has almost doubled in 2023, to 56,852 people, due to an unprecedented influx into the Canary archipelago, according to figures from the Spanish government.
Disappeared while trying to reach the Canaries
Caminando Fronteras, which relies on distress calls from migrants at sea or their families to prepare its reports, identified 363 women and 384 children among the victims recorded last year. The vast majority of disappearances of migrants trying to reach Spain (6,007 out of the total) occurred on the extremely dangerous migratory route between the coasts of northwest Africa and the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries, in Atlantic Ocean.
Migrants make this crossing of several hundred kilometers and several days or weeks on crowded makeshift boats. According to the NGO, the migrants who disappeared while trying to reach Spain first left the coast of Senegal (3,176). The NGO also recorded 611 deaths or disappearances last year on the migratory route linking Morocco and Algeria to the southern coasts of Spain.
Figures “probably” underestimated
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which relies on indirect testimonies and press articles, counted last year 914 missing on the migratory route to the Canaries and 333 between Morocco or the Algeria and Spain.
The IOM emphasizes, however, that its figures are “probably” a “considerable” underestimate of reality given the difficulty in documenting these shipwrecks and the fact that the majority of bodies are not found.