The number of illegal migrants reaching Spain's Canary Islands on vessels from West Africa has hit an all-time annual record with 41,425 arrivals between January 1 and November 30 of this year, Interior Ministry data showed on Monday.
The seven islands off northwestern Africa's Atlantic coast are struggling to absorb the surge in illegal migrants arriving on crammed, open-topped boats seeking opportunities in Europe.
With one month of 2024 still pending, this is the second year in a row that the archipelago, a front line in Europe's struggle to curb migration, has seen a record number.
Mali, Senegal and Morocco were the top three nationalities of migrants reaching the Canaries, according to latest data until October from the European Union's border agency Frontex.
Seeking to reverse the trend, Spain has asked Frontex to resume an air and maritime surveillance operation that had ended in 2018 in Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia.
Last year, 39,910 migrants arrived, surpassing the previous record in 2006.
The Atlantic route is especially dangerous as the ocean's rough weather can easily capsize the fragile rafts, pirogues and dinghies used by most migrants.
Between January and October, the Canaries registered the fastest increase in arrivals by sea in the EU, even as illegal migrant arrivals in the bloc reduced overall, Frontex data showed.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Emma Pinedo and Joan Faus; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne),