MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2021) Over the past year and a half, unprecedented numbers of refugees and migrants have made the daunting seaborne journey from northwestern Africa to the Canary Islands, and humanitarian organizations told Sputnik that governments and NGOs were forced to act quickly to build the necessary infrastructure to provide urgent care.
Less than 3,000 migrants and refugees, most originating from Morocco and countries in the Sahel region, arrived on the Canary Islands, a Spanish island archipelago, in 2019, according to data collated by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
One year later, more than 23,000 people made the arduous 60-mile journey across the western Atlantic Ocean to the Canary Islands, with many seeking an eventual move to the Spanish mainland.
The causes of the surge in migrant and refugee arrivals on the Canary Islands are believed to be multifarious. Some have pointed to the relative success of efforts to stop the flow of migrant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, while others have noted the disruption to traditional migration routes caused by the international border closures put into force to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Many humanitarian organizations operating on the Canary Islands were unprepared to deal with the rapid surge in the number of migrant and refugee arrivals, particularly in the final three months of 2020, Jose Javier Sanchez Espinosa, the director of social inclusion at the Spanish Red Cross (Cruz Roja), told Sputnik.
"It was a big challenge. It was very hard last year because not only was the number of people that we supported last year more than 23,000 ... but also, out of these 23,000 people, 16,000 of them arrived in the last three months [of the year]," Espinosa said.
In September 2019, the Spanish Red Cross had just 16 beds on the Canary Islands to provide accommodation to migrant arrivals in need, Espinosa said, adding that the organization was required to take drastic action in order to provide urgent assistance.
"We ended the year and we went to September 2020 with around 1,300 accommodation beds. And in three months, we had to open up to 10,000 new accommodation beds. The challenge was to create all this capacity to be able to give support to all these people in only three months," the Spanish Red Cross' director of social inclusion said.
On Gran Canaria, the rapid surge in arrivals left both the government and aid organizations overwhelmed, and a makeshift emergency camp was erected at the port of Arguineguin. Many of the arrivals were forced to sleep rough, without basic facilities, as the authorities scrambled to find a housing solution.
"We saw in 2020 that the situation was really concerning in relation to these centers, and in particular Arguineguin, including a lot of people, more than what the port could really take, and people coming in very weak condition because of the trip and the treatment they received at the hands of smugglers," Maria Jesus Vega, spokesperson for the UNHCR in Spain, told Sputnik in an interview.
Since then, emergency camps have been constructed on the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife with the help of the European Union, and Vega said that conditions, while not ideal, have improved.
"The Canary Island plan was put in place by the central government with the regional and local authorities, and with the support of different entities. Under this plan, there are now six centers, six emergency reception centers, plus others for specific persons with vulnerabilities, unaccompanied minors, and also women and asylum seekers. So, conditions have improved," she said.
At this stage, the UNHCR is focusing its efforts on helping migrant and refugee arrivals on the Canary Islands have access to asylum application procedures in a fair and fast way, Vega added.
MIGRANT ARRIVALS LEAD TO HEIGHTENED TENSIONS
The Canary Islands have long been a popular winter destination for European holidaymakers, and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has placed many local businesses on the verge of ruin.
According to data published by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE), the number of foreign tourists to the Canary Islands fell by 71 percent year-on-year in 2020, and BBVA, a Spanish financial services economy, has estimated that the archipelago's economy shrank by an estimated 15 percent in the same year.
The lack of tourists left many hotels and apartment complexes on the Canary Islands empty, and the local authorities rushed to secure deals last fall with owners in order to temporarily house the migrant and refugee arrivals.
At the time, hoteliers welcomed the agreements, although tensions have risen throughout the winter months as the flow of arrivals shows no sign of stopping.
In the resort town of Puerto Rico on Gran Canaria, located less than five miles from the port of Arguineguin, local officials and business owners have expressed concern about the large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers who are still being housed near the island's vacation hotspots.
This situation has led to the creation of pressure groups such as Let's Save Tourism (Salvemos el turismo), which have called on the government to provide more support to the embattled tourism sector and move migrant arrivals out of resort towns.
Several local politicians, including Onalia Bueno, the mayor of the Mogan municipality that includes the town of Puerto Rico, have seemingly given their backing to these pressure groups. In November, Bueno told a press conference that migration and tourism were "incompatible."
Neither Bueno nor the Mogan branch of the Let's Save Tourism group could be reached for comment, but some members have recently set up an online petition calling on the government to take action to tackle the "daily harassment and intimidation" residents in Puerto Rico face from the migrant arrivals.
In the petition, residents also allege that the migrant and refugee arrivals, including unaccompanied minors who are being housed in hotels in Puerto Rico, are responsible for sexual assaults and the vandalism of private property.
Commenting on the demands of groups such as Let's Save Tourism, Jose Javier Sanchez Espinosa of the Spanish Red Cross said that the majority of migrant arrivals have already been moved out of large hotel complexes and into other facilities.
"The total number of people that we provided accommodation to last year was up to 19,000, so it's true that we have many big hotels for accommodating these people. All these hotels are now closed, we are not using them anymore. They were closed from the beginning of the year. We transferred them to the accommodation compounds so these big hotels were closed for accommodation of these immigrants," he said.
Maria Jesus Vega, the UNHCR's spokesperson in Spain, said that the current situation in resort towns such as Puerto Rico underscored the need to find a mutually beneficial solution to the current crisis.
"There is a need to find a balance between respecting everyone's rights ... I think we all need to ensure that those who have public exposure on migration issues, not only on migration, but political groups, religious leaders, teachers, journalists, we all need to be very careful with our message and the way we portray the situation, with the headlines, to ensure that we are not fueling racism or xenophobia because that's really unfair," she said.
Vega also praised the "solidarity" shown by large parts of Gran Canaria's population to the migrants and asylum seekers, many of whom arrive on the islands dehydrated and in need of urgent medical care.
Boats carrying refugees and migrants have continued to make the arduous sea crossing from northwestern Africa to the Canary Islands through the winter, despite the less than favorable sea conditions.
Spanish rescue vessels are regularly dispatched to provide aid to stricken boats containing dozens of migrants, and the Maritime Safety and Rescue Society (Salvamento Maritimo) said on Sunday evening that it had rescued more than 100 migrants over a 24-hour period off the southern coast of the Canary Islands.
According to UNHCR data, 4,107 migrant and refugee arrivals have been registered on the Canary Islands so far in 2021, and Jose Javier Sanchez Espinosa of the Spanish Red Cross said that this figure was likely to rise considerably as sea conditions improve later in the year.
"This is double compared to the same period last year. So even now, when the weather conditions are very bad, we have already supported double the number of people than this period last year. So, we could be in the same position as last year," he said.
Maria Jesus Vega of the UNHCR said that the COVID-19 pandemic had complicated asylum application procedures and was also making it more difficult to facilitate the return of migrants whose applications have been rejected.
The European Union's home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, traveled to Morocco for a two-day visit this past December, at the peak of the surge of arrivals on the Canary Islands, to discuss further avenues of bilateral cooperation on visa facilitation and the return of migrants.
An estimated 1,851 migrants died en route to the Canary Islands in 2020, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, and a European Commission spokesperson told Sputnik that the EU is negotiating with several African countries, including Morocco, to create the infrastructure necessary to prevent migrants and asylum seekers from making the dangerous seaborne journey.
"Coming to the EU via the western Atlantic is now the most dangerous of the migratory routes. The Commission is helping address the situation through all means necessary including: negotiating partnerships with third countries (including Morocco), fighting smugglers, and providing operational and financial support. All these elements have been strongly welcomed by the national and regional authorities," Ciara Bottomley said in a written statement.
The European law enforcement agency, Europol, is also working with Spanish law enforcement to bust people smuggling rings on the archipelago. In December, a coordinated raid led to 19 arrests, and a further 15 suspects were detained in Gran Canaria during a similar operation earlier in April.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating toll on the Canary Islands' tourism industry, and many commentators are viewing so-called vaccine passports as a means of facilitating international travel over the coming months.
The Canary Islands are expected to be included on a "green list" for UK holidaymakers, one of 30 destinations likely to be opened up for quarantine-free travel, particularly for those who have already received a full vaccine dosing regimen.
However, fears remain in some parts of the archipelago that another surge in migrant and refugee arrivals may make some tourists reluctant about booking trips to the Canary Islands, depriving the archipelago and its businesses of much needed funds.
