The last week of October has been one of the most dramatic on the Canary Islands immigration route since records began. It resulted in seven immigrants dying on land and almost a hundred during the journey. In addition, many of the survivors had to be hospitalized due to the poor state of health in which they arrived. Since then, scenes of immigrants reaching the coast almost with their last breath have been repeated, forcing quick action to save their lives. In the last two days, five more immigrants have died: two arrived dead on land and three died in hospitals a few hours after their arrival.
The state of health with which they arrive now has nothing to do with that of recent months, and the explanation is very simple: the change of the sea. The time of calm, which is the time of year that runs from August to the end of October and is characterized by the sea being like a plate, is over, and the cayucos have to overcome waves of several meters to reach the Canary Islands.
This rough sea makes travel conditions difficult and lengthens the days of crossing, which causes immigrants to arrive in a worse state of health. Difficulties sometimes involve the engine breaking down or not having enough fuel, leaving them adrift. Many do not make it through, and those who do can't even speak when they hit the ground. It is precisely this change in the health status of the immigrants who arrive to the islands that is one of the arguments against the theory of mother ships, which has been talked about for 20 years, when the migration phenomenon began in the Canary Islands, and which has gained strength in this latest wave due to the intensity of the arrivals and the good physical appearance of the immigrants.
The theory suggests that these mother ships transport the cayucos up to 15 or 18 miles from the Canary Islands coast and at that point they leave them to finish the trip on their own in exchange for several thousand euros. “Now they arrive very well, nothing like what happened in 2006. It is evident that there are mother ships that leave them nearby,” indicated a few weeks ago a health professional from the island of El Hierro. The suspicion of mother ships is even shared by agents of the National Police, who before the dramatic week in October unofficially pointed out that, due to the state of health that the majority of the immigrants presented upon arrival, the levels of hydration and the intact mobility with which they made landfall, “it was impossible” for them to have traveled the 1,500 kilometers that separate the African coasts from the Canary Islands on their own.
Ismael Furió, a member of Salvamento Marítimo who for more than 12 years worked in immigrant rescues on the Canary Islands coast, is clear that mother ships do not exist.
Their colleagues from El Hierro and Tenerife – where most of the cayucos that leave the coasts of Senegal towards the Canary Islands are arriving – also rule out the possibility of merchant or fishing vessels transporting immigrants to the proximity of the coast. “Many of the cayucos are taking three or four days to arrive. The engines are becoming more powerful and the boats are better. If the sea is in good condition, they arrive quickly. They are not the eight or ten days that it took in 2006,” indicates one of the crew members of Salvamento Marítimo in El Hierro, who also points out that none of the immigrants who have arrived have reported the existence of the mother ships.
"To begin with, it is impossible for a ship, be it fishing or merchant, to stop at a point in the Atlantic and begin an operation that can take an hour or more, with the disembarkation from its holds of a cayuco with 200 or 300 people, and no one see nothing in one of the busiest and most guarded maritime traffic areas,” says Furió. The Canary Islands area is controlled by Civil Guard patrol boats, there are Navy radars and there are SIVE radars (integrated external surveillance systems, which reach ten kilometers), in addition to the Maritime Rescue control towers in the ports of Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Sasemar planes that monitor the area.
In addition, all ships are required to have the Ais identification system activated, which allows the position, course and speed of the ship as well as its origin and destination to be known at all times. Both fishing and merchant ships usually sail at a speed that ranges between 16 and 25 knots (between 30 and 46 kilometers per hour). If they were towing a canoe, explains Furió, they would have to reduce their speed to 5 or 6 knots (between 9 and 11 km/h) to prevent the canoe from overturning. If they did it on the fly, their speed reduction would be seen on the radars and they would be detected.
Furió highlights that the canoes that leave Senegal should not be seen as weak vessels because the reality is very different. “They are vessels of about 25-30 meters in length, with great draft and stability. When you get on one of them, its freeboard becomes two meters high and you understand everything,” he explains. As he points out, cayucos are used in their countries for fishing and they constantly move away from the coast for days.
Added to its good conditions for navigation are 50 or 60 horsepower Yamaha Enduro-type outboard engines that, although old, are “indestructible.” As he explains, these engines are modified so that they cool constantly and thus can withstand days of uninterrupted operation. The canoes leave Senegal with up to two engines and plenty of fuel. “They are engines that, as long as they work at moderate and constant revolutions, do not lack fuel and have cooling, can operate without problem for days and days, since they have very robust and simple mechanics,” says Furió, who also highlights another important detail, In the south of the Canary Islands the weather is tropical, so there are usually windows of frequent calm at sea.
Furió considers that the theory of mother ships is interesting to feed to justify the poor effectiveness of the SIVE in detecting vessels leaving Africa. Installed on all the islands, “they cost a million and are useless,” he asserts.
With the intense arrivals of the last few hours, on Saturday the Canary Islands set a new historical record and left behind that of 2006, when, in the cayucos crisis, 31,678 people arrived. So far in 2023, 31,686 people have arrived and there are still two months left in the year. This October has been the busiest in arrivals on the Canary Islands route, with 14,976 immigrants, almost half of the entire year, with an average of almost 500 per day.
