Migrant arrivals to Spain's Canary Islands have accelerated sharply this week, with maritime rescue services bringing 3,261 people ashore in the first six days of November, and regional authorities warned on Friday that the numbers arriving were unsustainable.
The surge is approaching the record-breaking levels seen in 2024, Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands, said, adding that on some days the current pace was even higher. The warning underlines how quickly a route that had quietened for much of the year has flared back into life.
The pressure is falling hardest on El Hierro, the smallest and westernmost of the main islands. Home to about 11,400 residents, it has become one of Europe's key entry points for migrants crossing from West Africa, and Clavijo described the situation there as "absolutely unsustainable".
Spain's maritime rescue service, Salvamento Maritimo, rescued about 500 people from two boats on Thursday night alone, recovering one body. Reuters footage showed hundreds of migrants gathered at the port of La Restinga, on El Hierro, after the rescues. At least nine migrants have died off the Canary Islands in the recent crossings, according to the agency.
The arrivals have come in a near-constant stream. On Thursday, 743 migrants reached the islands on seven boats, and three more boats carrying more than 340 people were escorted into La Restinga in the early hours of Friday. By Friday morning, rescue crews had brought more than 1,021 people ashore since Thursday evening, with further operations still under way off El Hierro.
The figures for the first days of the month are striking. More than 3,200 people arrived in 39 boats during the first five days of November, a pace not seen since the record months of 2023 and 2024. El Hierro alone received 2,300 people in 26 boats over the same period, among them 307 minors, 11 of them babies, according to an emergency services tally.
Most of the boats now reaching El Hierro set off from Senegal, the emergency services count showed, while other arrivals came from the coast between Agadir and Tan-Tan in southern Morocco. Lanzarote received 435 people since the start of the month, followed by Gran Canaria with 224, Tenerife with 175 and La Gomera with 80.
Clavijo said calm sea conditions were fuelling the new wave of departures towards the islands. The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the world's deadliest migration crossings, and the recent deaths are a reminder of the risks taken by those who board the small wooden fishing boats known as cayucos.
The surge follows a month that had already signalled a turn. In October, 6,164 people were rescued on the route, about 46 per cent of the year's total so far, suggesting the downward trend seen since the start of 2025 was reversing. Even so, arrivals were still down nearly 61 per cent in the first 10 months of 2026 compared with the same period of 2024.
That comparison points to the scale of the record year. In 2024, a total of 46,843 people arrived in the Canary Islands, the highest figure in the history of the route. Clavijo, speaking from Guadeloupe, said the figures now being seen were reminiscent of that year and that urgent action was needed.
The strain is also being felt by the services on the ground. Three police unions said officers were at the limit of their operational capacity after 24 boats carrying about 2,500 people arrived in the last four days. The Spanish government's delegate in the Canaries, Anselmo Pestana, acknowledged the growing number of boats reaching El Hierro but said the reception system remained viable thanks to the redistribution of arrivals to other islands and the mainland.
The rise comes days after Spain's interior ministry said Mauritania had intercepted 37 boats and stopped more than 4,300 people from continuing towards the Canary Islands this year. With calm seas expected to continue and boats still being tracked off El Hierro, regional officials say the coming days will show whether this is a short spike or the start of a sustained return to the record levels of 2024.
