Record of 1,488 migrants in one day in the Spanish Canary Islands
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Le Monde, Bénin Web TV, TimesLIVE, Sowetan and Business Day (South Africa)
The Canary Islands rescued 1,488 migrants in a single day on Saturday, aboard 14 boats, according to Le Monde. It is a daily record since 2020, with eight rescue vessels deployed. Other tallies put the figure at 1,580 people on fifteen pirogues.
The previous record, of 1,461 people, dated back to 7 November 2020, when rescue operations had been concentrated near Arguineguín, on Gran Canaria. This time, El Hierro, one of the smallest islands in the archipelago, accounted for most of the landings: twelve of the fourteen boats docked there, another on Gran Canaria and one on Tenerife.
The largest group, 240 people including 12 women and 36 children, had set sail six days earlier from Gunjur, in the Gambia. A second group of 92 people, also departing from the Gambia, landed at La Restinga, where a pregnant woman four months along and an 18-month-old child were present. At least 120 women and 173 minors were counted among those landed, a count that is still provisional. Seventeen survivors were taken to hospital on Gran Canaria, and another hospital transfer was carried out on Tenerife.
This surge is part of a strong resurgence in crossings: more than 3,200 people had already been rescued off the archipelago between 1 and 6 November. On Sunday, rescue operations were continuing, with a pirogue that had left Senegal carrying 79 people. Minister for Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres is due to travel to El Hierro to discuss the rise in arrivals. Over the year, however, arrivals remain 5.5% lower than in 2025 between January and 31 October, according to government data.
