With boats arriving daily, the number of people crossing the western Mediterranean to reach its shores has more than trebled this year. Pictured: Migrants in Tarifa, Spain
The flow of migrants entering Spain from North Africa could become a ‘big emergency’, the UN’s migration agency warned yesterday.
With boats arriving daily, the number of people crossing the western Mediterranean to reach its shores has more than trebled this year.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) fears the crisis could become as bad as that which overwhelmed Greece two years ago.
On Wednesday alone almost 600 people were rescued by Spanish coastguards after attempting to cross from Morocco on 15 vessels, including toy paddleboats and a jetski.
Earlier this month, the UN revealed that 8,385 migrants had been recorded entering Spain between January 1 and August 9, compared to just 2,476 in the same period in 2016.
People smugglers are increasingly heading for beaches in the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz – where a boat carrying dozens of African migrants was pictured arriving in front of bemused holidaymakers last week.
The IOM has warned that Spain could overtake Greece, which has seen 12,725 arrivals this year, in the number of migrants arriving by sea.
Spokesman Joel Millman said yesterday that field staff were warning that Spain was ‘now going through something like what Greece saw in the beginning of 2015 or Italy even earlier’.
The vessels heading to Spain are much smaller and carry fewer migrants than those crossing to Italy from Libya, or previously from Turkey to Greece, but they are now arriving daily, he said.
‘Obviously if this grows at the rate it’s growing it could be a big emergency,’ said Mr Millman.
The number of migrants arriving in Spain still pales in comparison with the number of people hitting the shores of Italy.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) fears the crisis could become as bad as that which overwhelmed Greece two years ago
So far this year 119,069 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea, with more than 80 per cent landing in Italy and the rest divided between Greece, Cyprus and Spain, the IOM said.
Most head north, with a large proportion aiming to reach the UK. Around 2,000 who built a shantytown close to the Eurostar railway hub in Paris were dispersed by riot police yesterday.
Most of those in the camp, which was built on a traffic island, were Afghans trying to get to Calais, and then on to Britain.
The number of migrants in Paris has risen significantly since the destruction of the Jungle camp in Calais last year, when around 8,000 people were sent to other parts of France.