Seven cayucos carrying 1,261 people reached El Hierro on Sunday, pushing total arrivals across the Canary Islands to 3,684 migrants over a three-day span, eldiario.es reported.
Maritime rescue services intercepted the wooden boats off the ports of La Restinga and La Estaca as the weekend surge compounded pressure on the Atlantic migration route. The new arrivals follow 843 people landing in eight boats on Friday, followed by another 1,580 people arriving in 14 vessels on Saturday.
Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory Ángel Víctor Torres arrived on the island during the influx to meet with local residents and outline fresh institutional responses, announcing measures from El Hierro in the face of the surge in arrivals along the Canary Islands migration route, the deadliest on the planet.
“We have seen significant spikes in 2006, 2007, as well as in 2020 when migrants could not leave the Canary Islands due to COVID-19,” Torres said, describing the migratory phenomenon as cyclical.
The first boat reached La Restinga at 2:35 a.m., carrying 79 people from Senegal and Gambia who had departed five days earlier. Later in the day, the maritime rescue vessel Diphda transferred another 244 people to the same port at around 11:40 a.m., including 30 women and seven minors originating from Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea Conakry, who reported traveling for seven days from Bakau in Gambia.
The occupants of another cayuco, composed of individuals from Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso, reported having departed eight days earlier from Brufut in Gambia.
Emergency medical teams transferred several individuals to the Hospital Insular Nuestra Señora de los Reyes following the dockings. Authorities said that roughly 17,000 migrants have reached El Hierro so far this year.
“Of those 1,600 currently on the island, 900 are being transferred today,” said Alpidio Armas, president of the Cabildo of El Hierro, pointing to the ongoing operation of the Canary Plan for reception and transfers.
Torres announced that the Interministerial Commission on Migrations will convene on Tuesday to update emergency protocols and integrate new operational data. The measures follow a previous emergency declaration that injected 15.2 million euros into shelter capacity and minor processing resources.
Rescue capabilities are also set to expand with the deployment of the Guardamar Calíope to El Hierro, bringing the total number of high-speed guardamar vessels stationed across the archipelago to five. Alongside domestic logistics, officials said Spain's Interior and Foreign Ministries are conducting diplomatic outreach with authorities in Senegal, Mauritania, and Gambia.
“I spoke about this yesterday with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to monitor the actions underway on the island of El Hierro,” Torres said.
