A record total of 131 flimsy boats loaded with migrants disappeared at sea while trying to reach Spain in 2024, a year that goes down as the deadliest on record. Roughly 10,500 people died on the Atlantic and Mediterranean routes to Spanish soil over the past 12 monts, according to a report by Spain-based migrant rights group Caminando Fronteras.
The group reports that there has been a 58 percent increase in migrant deaths on the western Euro-African border as more people resorted to the use of rickety wooden and inflatable boats to reach Europe.
Cumulatively, the group recorded 10,457 deaths over the period from January 1 to December 15, an average of 30 victims every day - up from 18 victims daily in 2023. A total of 421 women and 1,538 children and adolescents were among the recorded victims. A majority of the deceased were from Africa, and victims from Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen were also recorded.
The report shows the Atlantic route from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands remains the most lethal in the world, partly due to a sharp increase in boats setting off from Mauritania. A total of 9,757 deaths were recorded on the route with 70 percent of the victims travelling in wooden boats. European agencies have attributed the increased traffic levels to criminal groups dedicated to human trafficking in Mauritania.
The Algerian route in the Mediterranean is the second deadliest with 517 victims while the Strait of Gibraltar has claimed up to 110 lives with another 73 dying on the Alborán route.
The report puts the blame for the significant surge in migrants’ deaths on Spanish authorities, whom it accuses of pursuing policies focused on controlling migration with support from Europe. On the Atlantic route for instance, overloading of flimsy boats that only float for a short time continues to cause shipwrecks when response from rescue services is delayed or inadequate. There have been several tragedies that occurred despite rescue services having the exact coordinates of the boat in distress, the NGO asserted.
Caminando Fronteras is raising the alarm of the rise of women migrants on the Atlantic route, most travelling aboard inflatable boats that set off from the coast between Agadir and Dakhla. The boats, known as ‘zodiacs’ among migrants, are flimsy and dangerous in the Atlantic, where the sea is much rougher than in the Mediterranean.
Concerns over the rising migrant crisis on the Atlantic route has forced the European Union (EU) and Spain to take actions to help Mauritania deal with the problem. The EU has for instance invested nearly $220 million to enhance Mauritania’s capacity to manage migration flows.
Spain, alongside Italy and Greece, are the main European countries that have been affected by maritime migration, which has become a hot-button issue in EU politics.
