Fernando Grande-Marlaska met at the beginning of March with his counterparts from Italy, Cyprus, Greece and Malta to try to mitigate the illegal immigration that plagues these countries. The objective of that meeting was to take measures that are decisive and, above all, effective in the face of the reality with which the countries of the southern Mediterranean have to struggle.
Despite the transfers of Sánchez ‘handing over’ the Sahara, Morocco has not fulfilled its part of containing immigration and the flow of migrants does not stop growing. According to the latest report from the Ministry of the Interior, Spain has become a country that finds it difficult to contain irregular immigration by sea and land.
In fact, the arrival of migrants to the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands has increased by 48% in 2023 (3,000 more undocumented people) in just one year since it has gone from 6,359 last year to 9,409 in 2023. They did it in 744 boats According to the latest balance of irregular immigrant entries published this Friday by the Ministry of the Interior, since 1 From January to August 31, 21,780 migrants have entered Spain, the majority by sea: 21,025 people, which is 22.5 percent more than in the first eight months of 2022, when 19,007 immigrants arrived on the coast.
The downward trend registered in the arrival of boats during a good part of the year was broken, however, in the first half of July and It has risen with the passing of the fortnights until the end of August with a high increase in entries through the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. Despite the increase in entries through the Mediterranean coast this summer, the Canary Islands continues to be the majority destination for boats with migrants. In these first eight months, 11,439 people have arrived in 212 boats to the islands compared to 10,637 in the same previous period. This digit represents 7.5% more than in the previous year as a consequence of the increase in arrivals in the last fortnight of August.
Meanwhile, in these eight months of the year the largest increase compared to 2022 is in boat arrivals to the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, where 9,409 people have arrived in 744 boatswhich puts more than 3,000 more migrants and an increase of 48%.