ATLANTIC ROUTE and SPAIN: Spanish Prime Minister calls for early implementation of Pact ― Political row over arrivals in Canary Islands escalates ― EU announces € 14 million support for reception in Canary Islands ― Major boat tragedy off El Hierro ― B…

• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced that he will ask the European Commission to bring forward the implementation of the recently adopted EU Pact on Migration and Asylum from 2026 to 2025.
• A major political row is developing over Spain’s response to the situation regarding irregular arrivals on the Canary Islands.
• European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas has travelled to the Canary Islands as the EU agrees to provide € 14 million to facilitate the reception of arrivals in the region.
• Nine people have died and more than 48 are missing after a boat capsized off the island of El Hierro.
• Fishermen have found the bodies of 30 people in a boat that was adrift off the coast of Senegal.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced that he will ask the European Commission to bring forward the implementation of the recently adopted EU Pact on Migration and Asylum from 2026 to 2025. Speaking in parliament on 9 October, Sánchez said: “We Spaniards are children of migration, we will not be parents of xenophobia. Let’s create an immigration policy that our elders can be proud of”. He also unveiled plans to integrate non-Spaniards through work. “Spain needs to choose between being an open and prosperous country or a closed-off, poor country. Throughout history, migration has been one of the great drivers of the development of nations while hatred and xenophobia have been – and continue to be – the greatest destroyer of nations. The key is in managing it well,” he added. Two days earlier, Sánchez and Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Elma Sáiz had a meeting with representatives of a number of Spanish NGOs that are working on migration-related issues. The group of NGOs, which included several ECRE member organisations (Accem, Andalucía Acoge Federation, Cepaim Foundation, Movement for Peace (MPDL), Red Acoge Federation, Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR) and Spanish Red Cross), presented their main proposals for a Pact that was focused on people and their rights, and they discussed the importance of “strengthening Spain’s system for reception and integration”. Following the meeting, the NGOs issued a joint statement in which they welcomed the prime minister’s “willingness to defend an EU approach to guaranteeing the rights of migrants and refugees in the application of the Pact” and his “commitment to ensuring dialogue with civil society throughout the process of its implementation in Spain”.

A major political row is developing over Spain’s response to the situation regarding irregular arrivals on the Canary Islands. On 5 October, the opposition People’s Party (PP) broke off negotiations with the government on the measures to be taken to alleviate the effects of the “crisis” in the archipelago and accused it of not wanting to accept help from the EU. “The executive of (Prime Minister Pedro) Sánchez cannot refuse European support to solve a problem not only of the Canary Islands and not only of Spain,” PP Parliamentary Spokesperson Miguel Tellado X posted. Tellado had been due to meet Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory Ángel Víctor Torres on 7 October but the former’s party reportedly cancelled the meeting. For his part, Torres described the allegation that the government had rejected the EU’s assistance as “unacceptable” and “for purely political reasons”, and urged the PP to resume negotiations.

The latest round in the ongoing disagreement about the situation in the Canary Islands took place two weeks after European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas visited the region precisely to support efforts to manage the increased number of arrivals there. During a meeting with President of the Canary Islands Fernando Clavijo on 18 September, Schinas announced that the EU would allocate € 14 million from the European Regional Development Fund to the region as part of a joint operation with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The funding follows an earlier payment of € 20 million in March. “Addressing migration challenges in the Canary Islands requires a collective response with full cooperation and synergies at the European, national, and regional levels,” Schinas X posted, adding: “The EU stands ready to support the management of migration on the Canary Islands with concrete initiatives”.

Nine people have died and at least 48 are missing after a boat capsized off the Canary Islands. Commenting on the tragedy, which took place off the island of El Hierro on 28 September, President of the Canary Islands Fernando Clavijo X posted that it “again underlines the dangerousness of the Atlantic route”. “We need Spain and the EU to act decisively in the face of a structural humanitarian tragedy,” he added. Rescuers said that they managed to rescue 27 of the estimated 84 people on the boat. “After what happened yesterday and if the forecast for the arrival of the migrant boats happens, then it will be the biggest humanitarian crisis to happen to the Canary Islands in 30 years,” said Canary Islands Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Families Candelaria Delgado. Commenting on the latest tragedy to affect the region, Juan Carlos Lorenzo from ECRE member organisation the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR) said: “the seas must stop being mass graves”. He also urged authorities to “increase the possibilities of legal and safe ways to ensure that people do not continue to risk their lives at sea”. ECRE member organisation the Red Acoge Federation X posted: “States have the obligation to respect and protect the right to life without discrimination. Borders, whether maritime or land, cannot become zones of exclusion or exception to human rights obligations”.

The shipwreck off the island of El Hierro came less than a week after the bodies of 30 people were found in a boat off the coast of Senegal. The bodies were found by fishermen in a wooden boat that was drifting in the ocean approximately 70 kilometres from the capital Dakar. Given the state of decomposition of the bodies, it has been estimated that the boat had probably been adrift for a number of days. “It’s a sad fate. I certainly don’t support this form of emigration, but people are desperate,” said Bassirou Mbengue, a fisherman and boat owner. “Given the recurrence of this type of tragedy, we can say that this is no longer a cyclical phenomenon, but rather a structural one,” said the president of the migrants rights NGO Horizons sans Frontières, Boubacar Sèye. “To stop this, we need to attack the problem at source, with new ways of raising awareness in the most vulnerable areas,” he added. Commenting on the tragedy, ECRE member organisation the Movement for Peace (MPDL) X posted: “Thousands of migrants disappear and die at sea every year. We cannot forget that migration is a human right. It is urgent to demand legal pathways now”.

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