In the last year, the Canary Island saw a significant proportional increase in the number of third country nationals trying to reach the EU territory through the West Africa route. This is not however a new phenomenon, as a surge in the number of unaccompanied minors in the West Africa route has been reported since at least 2006.
According to Euronews, which mentions a Frontex report, the number of attempted crossing of the EU border by third country nationals increased by 10 times between 2023 and 2024 at the Canary Islands, while the Central Mediterranean Route (crossing the Mediterranean between Lybia, Tunisia, Italy and Malta) and the Balkan Route (mainly through Greece) saw a significant drop in the numbers.
The emergency is made even more serious by the fact that a significant number of third country nationals crossing the borders are unaccompanied minors which, according to Spanish legislation, are, unlike adults, within the responsibility of the autonomous communities.
This has prompted the Canary regional government, according to InfoMigrants, to ask several times in the last year to the Spanish government to redistribute the number of unaccompanied minors among the other autonomous communities of the country in order to relieve the pressure on the Canary reception system.
The Spanish government responded by proposing a legislative amendment that allows for the redistribution of the number of unaccompanied minors between the autonomous communities, including Catalunia, which was initially reluctant to participate into the redistribution.
The proposal of the Spanish government plans to change art. 23 of the Spanish migration law (Ley Orgánica 4/2000) in order to introduce a fair and even redistribution of unaccompanied minors between the autonomous communities, introducing more solidarity at national level.
It is interesting to note that the stance of the Spanish government seems to be at odds with the last year trend towards the externalisation of the management of migration by national governments, as shown by the examples of the United Kingdom (which however recently withdraw from the project) and Italy.
Image credits: Salvamiento Maritimo by dmytrok, Flickr
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