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Four women and three girls died on Wednesday when a small boat carrying migrants capsized while arriving to port in the Canary Islands, emergency services in Spain said.
Spain’s maritime rescue service, which located the boat some 9.6 kilometres from shore, said the boat tipped over as rescuers started removing children as it arrived at a dock on the island of El Hierro.
Local media said the small boat appeared to be packed with more than 100 people.
Spanish rescuers and members of the Red Cross were involved in a rescue operation, pulling several people out of the water.
The Spanish archipelago located off Africa’s western coast has for years been a main route for migrants trying to reach Europe.
But it’s also one of the world’s most dangerous with the Spanish migrants’ rights group Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) saying in a January report that more than 10,000 people had died last year trying to reach the archipelago.
But a record number of migrants were more lucky, with authorities in the Canary Islands saying more than 43,000 people had arrived there in 2024.
Several EU member countries have started to update their migration policies, just as migration also comes at the top of the European Council’s agenda.
In a letter to EU member states, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed speeding up the return of asylum seekers and opening detention centres in third countries, following the precedent set by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s controversial agreement with Albania.
Meanwhile, the Spanish government announced last year the opening of an emergency reception centre at Ciudad Real airport to deal with asylum requests from irregular arrivals.
And in March, Madrid adopted a measure to redistribute thousands of unaccompanied migrant minors currently sheltered on the Canary Islands to other parts of Spain.
The reform ended a months-long political stalemate between Spain’s regions and the central government and was aimed at easing pressure on overcrowded migrant reception centres, mainly in the Canary Islands.
For several months, local leaders in the Canaries had complained about a lack of resources to shelter the thousands of unaccompanied children and teenagers who reach their shores.
The Canary Islands are sheltering more than 5,000 unaccompanied minors across the archipelago.
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