Madar (International) - More than 3,200 migrants reached Spain's Canary Islands aboard 39 boats in the first five days of November 2026, a pace close to the record years of 2023 and 2024, Spanish news site elDiario.es reported on the evening of Thursday, 5 November, citing the EFE news agency.
According to an emergency services count seen by EFE, with provisional figures as rescues were still under way, El Hierro alone received 2,300 people aboard 26 boats over the five days, including 307 minors, 11 of them babies.
Most of the boats now arriving in El Hierro set off from Senegal, the same source said. Lanzarote followed with 435 people since the start of the month, most of whom left from the coast between Agadir and Tan-Tan in southern Morocco in inflatable boats, followed by Gran Canaria (224), Tenerife (175) and La Gomera (80).
October alone saw 6,164 people rescued, 46% of the year's total, according to elDiario.es.
"We are looking at figures that remind us of 2024, when 47,000 people arrived on our shores. And on some days the trend is even higher. Measures are urgently needed," Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo said from Guadeloupe, where he is attending a meeting of the EU's outermost regions. He asked Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for an urgent coordination meeting.
The Spanish government's delegate in the Canaries, Anselmo Pestana, acknowledged that the growing number of boats reaching El Hierro was "straining" some of the island's resources, but said the system was working normally thanks to transfers of new arrivals to other islands on chartered ferries. Three police unions, however, warned that their officers on the island were "at the limit".
The rise comes days after Spain's interior ministry said Mauritania had intercepted 37 boats and stopped more than 4,300 people from continuing towards the Canaries this year, during minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska's visit to Nouakchott.
