He maintains the migratory pressure in the Canary Islandswith a constant flow of boats to the islands, to which the cayucos arrive with an increasingly varied profile of migrants. This is the case of the boat with 174 migrants on board that arrived in El Hierro this Saturday, a third of whom are Pakistanis and Syrianssomething unusual.
Specifically, a total of 51 of the 174 migrants on board are of these nationalities, which is unusual since migrants from Syria and Pakistan usually choose the Mediterranean route to leave their countries, avoiding the deadly Canary Islands route, which takes longer and is more dangerous.
The migrants, including 12 women and 7 minors, declared upon arrival at the port of La Restinga that they had come from Syria, Pakistan and Senegal, Mali, Gambia and Guinea Conacrywho are more common nationalities. They said they had been at sea for five days after leaving Nuackchott, Mauritania.
Fleeing the war
However, and despite this last cayuco, two out of three migrants who cross the Canary Islands route continue to come from Mali and Senegal. In detail, 43% come from Mali, the most widespread nationality. According to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Malians are the most numerous, with a total of 9,319 people in the first half of 2024.
Mali has a population of five million, among whom there are already more than 250,000 refugees. Among the reasons that push them to take the deadliest route in Europe, there are war, poverty and climate changewhich is forcing its inhabitants to leave their country, considered by the United Nations to be one of the poorest in the world.
After Mali, Senegal is the second most frequent country on the Canary Islands coast, with 20%, or around 4,300 in the first half of 2024.
