The punctual arrivals of Asian immigrants – mainly Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, and to a lesser extent Afghans and Syrians – in the Canary Islands on boats coming from the coasts of Mauritania at the beginning of summer are becoming increasingly common in recent months of the year. The state security forces and immigration prosecutors warn that human trafficking mafias have found in the dangerous Canary route a lucrative alternative to reach Europe due to the tightening of borders by authorities in the Balkans and in Mediterranean points like Libya, Tunisia, or Turkey. These landings add to the steady stream of small boats that continue to swell the numbers of irregular immigration in Spain, which, just a few weeks before the end of the year, are on track to break all records again: by November 30th, 41,425 immigrants had arrived in the Canary Islands, a 17% increase compared to the same period in 2023.
A senior police officer compares the migration flows board to a chess game where mafias seek the easiest route to transport the largest volume of immigrants in the quickest and simplest way, against the movements of authorities trying to stop them. This happened in Spain just a couple of years ago. The shift in the Pedro Sánchez government's stance on Western Sahara helped reduce irregular arrivals due to increased Moroccan border control. However, it proved to be a mirage, as one year later the Canary route was reactivated – a situation not seen since the 2006 cayuco crisis – due to Senegal's permissiveness. Similar international movements have led Asian mafias to target the Canary Islands as an entry point to Europe.
The migrants fly from the United Arab Emirates or Qatar to Senegal, to wait in Mauritania until they board the canoe
The increasing strict control that countries like Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Croatia are subjecting to, on one hand, and the pressure from Italy in Libya and Algeria, on the other, was added the shipwreck last year of a fishing boat in the Ionian Sea that resulted in the death of over 300 Pakistanis, causing a great shock among the population. According to police sources, these two factors have forced the mafias to reinvent the traditional route that used to lead Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to Europe.
Deputy prosecutor for human trafficking and immigration in the Canary Islands, Teseida García, has managed, thanks to the confession of a Bangladeshi citizen, to unravel the modus operandi of the mafias that are facilitating the entry of Asians to the Canary Islands. As she explains to La Vanguardia in a phone conversation, the journey of the migrants, who mainly have an economic profile —despite the increasing signs of political turmoil in the area— starts with the purchase of a plane ticket bound for the United Arab Emirates or Qatar. In contrast to the traditional Balkan route, which is mostly traveled by vehicle and on foot, the majority of this journey is done by plane, reducing time and danger. Once in Doha or Abu Dhabi, the next destination is Senegal, as a preliminary step to Mauritania. Until a couple of weeks ago, a visa was not required to cross from the first African country to the second, so immigrants had free rein. It remains to be seen if this change in visa policy will help stem this route.
The Foreign Affairs Prosecutor manages to unravel the modus operandi of the organizations thanks to a confession
The Public Prosecutor's representative details that the mafia trafficking Asians subcontract other criminal organizations with Maghrebis at the top for the last part of the journey: the deadly route on a makeshift boat from the coasts of Nuakchot to El Hierro or Tenerife. But before boarding the boat, where they can sail for several days until being rescued, the Asian mafias exploit immigrants through forced labor under the false pretense that they must fund the end of the journey. They perform slave labor in businesses owned by the organization's leaders in the Mauritanian capital or its surroundings. The National Police has deployed a joint investigation team (ECI) in Mauritania, which, in collaboration with local authorities, has dismantled several locations where immigrants wait before attempting to reach the Canary Islands.
Alerts have been triggered after an unusual number of Asians arrived on small boats in recent months. At the end of the summer, a rescued boat had 174 people on board; 48 of them were Pakistanis. In October, another boat arrived with 76 immigrants, of whom 65 claimed to be Pakistani, along with some Afghans. At the end of November, Mauritanian police arrested 125 migrants of Pakistani origin in Nuakchot who were attempting to travel to the Canary Islands. The Government Delegation in the Canary Islands reported that they have opened an investigation, and the Public Prosecutor's Office confirms to this newspaper that they are closely monitoring the activities of the criminal organization they discovered thanks to the confession, as it is still operating.
The distribution of migrant children at a standstill
The hasty departure of the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, at the end of the failed meeting between the Government and the Popular Party to establish a mandatory distribution of unaccompanied foreign minors among the autonomous communities staying in the Canary Islands was nothing short of a vivid display of anger and disappointment, according to sources close to him. Clavijo, who governs the islands alongside the Popular Party, acknowledged that the negotiations are at a standstill with no end in sight. Meanwhile, the Canary Islands' reception system is under unprecedented pressure. Adolescents without family support continue to arrive in makeshift boats on the shores of the Canaries. In just the past month of November, 1,004 minors arrived, as disclosed by the Canary Islands government spokesperson. The latest update puts the number of unaccompanied minors under the care of the Canary Islands at 5,699, surpassing their maximum capacity set at 3,000. The Government affirms that they will continue exploring all avenues of dialogue to persuade the Popular Party to support the reform of Article 35 of the Immigration Law, which is currently the only proposal on the table. However, the Popular Party insists on the necessity of a change in Sanchez's migration policy to avoid what they perceive as a “pull factor,” proposing to involve the European Union in resolving the crisis.
