Canary Islands’ El Hierro declares emergency amid migrant, refugee influx

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkMigrants wait to be transferred to a Temporary Reception Centre for Foreigners (CATE) after disembarking from a Spanish coastguard vessel at the port of La Restinga, on the island of El Hierro, Spain, on November 6, 2026 [Jesus Cabrera/Reuters]By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and ReutersPublished On 8 Nov 20268 Nov 2026Authorities of El Hierro, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, have declared an emergency and asked the government in Madrid for help after a surge in migrants and refugees arriving on boats.“We are very concerned… by this sharp increase in arrivals,” Alpidio Armas, head of the governing council for El Hierro, one of Europe’s main entry points for migrants and refugees from West Africa, told Spanish television on Saturday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3More than 140 dead, missing on refugee boat stranded off Mauritanialist 2 of 3Pope Leo’s visit lays bare Spain’s tangled politics of faith and migrationlist 3 of 3Five killed, dozens more feared dead in boat adrift off Canary Islandsend of list“This is precisely what has led us to declare an emergency in order to ensure a framework of cooperation with higher-level institutions.”More than 3,300 people have arrived on the island in about 30 boats since the start of November, according to local authorities. El Hierro has about 11,400 residents.Officials are seeking temporary accommodation for the new arrivals, while conditions at the island’s hospital have become “undesirable”, Armas said.The situation is “absolutely unsustainable”, the Reuters news agency quoted Fernando Clavijo, the regional leader of the Canary Islands, as saying on Friday.Maritime rescue services rescued 3,261 migrants and refugees off the coast of the Canary Islands in the first six days of November.Clavijo said the numbers were approaching the record levels seen in 2024, and on some days, the current pace was even higher.Buses have been diverted to migration operations, and medical staff have been brought in from other islands, he said.Deadly routeThe Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the world’s deadliest migration crossings.Two people were found dead on a boat heading for the Canaries this week, and five others are believed to have died during the voyage, according to the AFP news agency, citing survivor accounts.At least nine migrants or refugees have died off the islands in recent weeks.Arrivals reached a record of more than 46,000 in 2024, then fell sharply due to tighter surveillance and greater cooperation with countries of origin and transit.Between January and October, 13,327 irregular migrants and refugees arrived by sea, 5.5 percent fewer than in the same period last year, according to Spain’s Ministry of the Interior.Patrols off Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco have pushed departures further south, from The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea, making crossings longer.Senegalese police said on Saturday that they intercepted 142 migrants, including women and young children, off Dakar.