EL HIERRO, Spain (The Thursday Times) — A record 1,488 migrants were rescued off Spain’s Canary Islands on Saturday, the highest single-day total since the current records began, as wooden boats from West Africa kept arriving at the small island of El Hierro.
Twelve large boats carrying 1,235 people reached El Hierro, according to provisional figures. Another boat with 203 people was intercepted off Gran Canaria and a vessel with 50 landed on Tenerife. The total beat the previous high of 1,461 people, who arrived on November 7, 2020. Provisional data showed 108 women and 167 minors among Saturday’s arrivals, and most of those rescued came from Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Conakry, according to reports.
Islands overwhelmed
The surge did not stop at midnight. Counting a boat with 122 people that reached the port of La Restinga late on Friday, about 2,331 people arrived on 22 boats over two days, and two further rescue operations were still under way. Six Maritime Rescue vessels and two Civil Guard patrol boats were deployed.
Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo said the steady stream of boats this month has completely overwhelmed the islands’ resources. El Hierro’s island council had already declared a social emergency after more than 8,000 arrivals in five weeks. Clavijo has written to EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner asking for urgent action, and said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pledged to convene an interministerial commission on immigration. Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres was due to visit La Restinga on Sunday.
A dangerous route
Interior Ministry figures show 6,194 arrivals in October, the busiest month on the route since 2023, and forecasts point to no decline before December, when weather conditions change. The crossing from Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania covers more than 1,000 kilometres, and the International Organization for Migration has recorded at least 450 deaths on the Atlantic route in the first ten months of 2026.
The EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum took effect on June 12, but the arrivals suggest it has done little so far to slow the flow to Spain.
