Some 1,500 migrants reached Spain’s Canary Islands over the weekend, part of a surge in migrants leaving sub-Saharan Africa in recent months.
A total of 1,457 migrants had reached the Spanish islands off the western African coast between Friday night and Sunday morning, according to Spanish authorities, who said all of the people on board the boats came from sub-Saharan Africa.
A thousand people arrived on Saturday, including 321 arriving on a wooden boat to the island of El Hierro, marking a record number of people in a single boat.
On Sunday, 783 arrived in El Hierro, 98 in Tenerife and 150 in Gran Canaria, according to the Red Cross.
Passengers included women and young children.
The dangerous, 100-kilometre crossing from Morocco or Western Sahara to the seven Canary Islands has meant hundreds of people have not made it, and have died at sea.
The latest data from Spain's interior ministry show 23,537 migrants reached the Canaries between the start of the year and 15 October – an 80 percent increase from the same period last year.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska last week said a recent spike in numbers resulted from political "destabilisation in the Sahel".
(with newswires)
