Spain has declared a migration emergency in the Canary Islands after the arrival of more than 9,000 people in its Atlantic Ocean territory since the start of November.
Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said it had rescued 1,488 migrants aboard 14 dinghies, also known as pirogues, most of whom arrived on El Hierro in the Canary Islands from West Africa on Saturday.
That’s broken the record of 1,461 people rescued six years earlier in November 2020.
Spain’s Territorial Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres is visiting El Hierro on Sunday to discuss the surge in migrant arrivals.
Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from El Hierro, said the arrival this year has set a record in the 32 years since statistics have been collected.
“There’s been even more arrivals by Sunday afternoon”, Smith said, adding that the new arrivals are processed at the port in El Hierro and taken to a reception centre and sent on to other Canary Islands or to the Spanish mainland.
The European Union’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum officially came into force on June 12, 2026, introducing “firm and fair rules” for accepting asylum requests, marking the most sweeping overhaul of EU asylum and border laws in decades.
“EU states are under pressure to do more to control migration from Africa and from outside the European Union,” Smith said, adding that the new rules haven’t stopped the flow of migrants to Spain and its enclaves.
Last month, Spain deported more than a dozen of the 80,000 people who had entered its North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco over a 48-hour period in late July.
At least 100 people died during the mass crossing into the autonomous city, which covers just 18.5 square kilometres (7.1sq miles) and has a population of about 80,000.
Most of the migrants arriving in El Hierro depart from West Africa, many leaving from Senegal, with hopes of reaching mainland Europe.
But to get there, they risk their lives in small, often overcrowded boats at sea.
One boat on Saturday was carrying 240 people, including 12 women and 36 children, authorities said.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded at least 450 deaths on the Western African Atlantic route in the first 10 months of 2026.
“It is a treacherous journey,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar in Senegal, from where some of the boats depart, adding that favourable weather conditions in the Atlantic Ocean have made departures from the coastlines in Africa much easier in recent years.
“So when the weather conditions allow it, the boats go out there,” he said, noting that migrants use “wooden fishing vessels called pirogues” in which up to 100 people are packed in for “a journey that can last one week”.
