NGO says 18 migrants die daily trying to reach Spain

An average of 18 migrants die each day trying to reach Spain, according to an advocacy group.

Caminando Fronteras, which means Walking Borders in English, said in its Right to Life Monitoring report the 6,618 people who perished trying to enter the country in 2023 was almost three times the 2,390 recorded in 2022.

The report said beefed-up border controls in gateway nations on the southern edge of the European Union meant migrants took increasingly dangerous options to make their way into the bloc.

Helena Maleno, who founded and runs the NGO, said: "2023 has been a terrible year. It's a massacre along the borders of the Spanish state."

The report said the death toll, which included 384 children, was the heaviest since the organization began its work in 2007.

Most of the fatalities, some 6,007, were among migrants attempting to travel from the West Coast of Africa to Spain's Canary Islands.

"The Atlantic route has become the deadliest route in the world," The Guardian newspaper quoted Maleno as saying.

The report said 84 vessels sank during 2023 on the way to Spanish soil, with the 1,600-kilometer weeklong journey from Senegal to the Canary Islands the most dangerous route.

Despite the danger, 39,910 migrants arrived safely on the islands during 2023, according to Spain's Interior Ministry. The total was 154 percent up on 2022.

The Spanish government said in October it will put together a 50-million-euro ($54 million) support package to help the islands cope.

While most of the migrants who died on the way to the Canary Islands were from Senegal, others hailed from nations including Algeria, Cameroon, Gambia, and as far afield as Syria.

And while in the past most were men, the report said "in the last quarter of 2023, women and very young children, including babies, also began to make the crossing".

Spain's Interior Ministry said 56,852 migrants arrived irregularly in greater Spain in 2023, either by land or sea. The total was 82.1 percent higher than in 2022.

Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Thursday the nation has increased cooperation with African countries, to ensure people do not try to make the journey. He said the effort has led to 27,000 departures being prevented.

"We have saved lives," AP quoted him as saying.

The Caminando Fronteras report said, in addition to the lives lost on the Canary Islands route, 434 people died trying to enter Spain via Algeria, 147 perished in the Strait of Gibraltar, and 30 lost their lives on the Alboran Sea in the west of the Mediterranean.

Caminando Fronteras compiles its list based on government figures, reports from migrants' families and friends, and by monitoring alerts received from people at sea.