Tales of Pak migrants in Spain's Canaries
Migrants sit in a boat, after the Spanish Salvamento Maritimo (Sea Search and Rescue agency) rescued around 250 migrants in three different boats at sea, at La Restinga port, in the municipality of El Pinar on the Canary Island of El Hierro, on February 4, 2023. PHOTO: AFP
VALVERDE: El Hierro, a small island in the Atlantic Ocean, is Europe's latest frontline in the struggle to cut irregular migration. Nearly twice as many migrants as residents have landed this year on the southernmost of Spain's Canary Islands.
Migrants typically pay 400 to 1,500 euros for an up to 2,200-km (1,400 mile) crossing from West Africa, said a Spanish security source, asking not to be named because they were not authorised to talk to the media.
Seats by the stern, close to the captain, are the priciest. El Hierro is the most distant Canary island from Africa, and the route over the open ocean is extremely perilous. Officials believe smugglers took to it last year to avoid
Migrants will seek alternative routes as long as legal migration paths remain elusive and the root causes of migration are not addressed, said researcher Ares.
People are coming to El Hierro from even further afield. Several Pakistanis in Tenerife told Reuters they paid smugglers up to 16,000 euros each for the trip, flying to Senegal via the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia, and boarding boats from Mauritania.
Abid Hussain, 39, was among 65 Pakistanis in a 76-person boat that arrived in October. He said he embarked on a five-day sea journey from Mauritania after two years trying to obtain a visa for Italy, where his wife and two children emigrated in 2023. "There is no future in Pakistan. European life is easier for children," said Hussain, who comes from a poor family.
Between January and August, 91 Pakistanis reached the Canaries -- up from four in all of 2023, according to Frontex data. A Canaries official said authorities are worried that sporadic arrivals from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen could signal a permanent shift of migratory flows due to tighter controls by Libyan authorities on boats departing for Italy.
Tighter controls
Spanish police have long operated in Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia to strengthen border controls, but now Madrid is looking to beef up those relations, along the lines of its agreements with Morocco that helped reduce migrant arrivals from there.
Spain asked Frontex to restart an air and maritime surveillance operation, which ended in 2018, in Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia. For that to happen, the European Commission must first strike a deal with African countries over how it would function.
A Commission spokesperson said it is working on intensifying dialogue and cooperation on migration with Mauritania and Senegal, but did not elaborate. Spain also wants to boost deportations. Only 2,760 of a total 56,852 irregular migrants were deported to their home countries last year, official data shows.