There is no button that can be pressed to stop the drama of immigrants crossing the Atlantic to reach the West. However, police cooperation with the countries of origin is the formula to try to slow it down. This is the thesis defended by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who yesterday traveled to Senegal to analyze with the authorities of the African country the situation of the migratory routes to the Canary Islands and to strengthen the existing mechanisms of the fight against human trafficking networks.
The strategy is clear: more border control to prevent thousands of vulnerable people from continuing to climb the pastures. Until October 29, 29,771 migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands, according to data obtained by La Vanguardia. Of them, more than half, 17,009, left from Senegal or Gambia. This represents 57% of arrivals to the islands during 2023; while in 2022 they were only 4%. In 2021, 3%.
Despite these worrying figures, the Ministry of the Interior is convinced that police cooperation to prevent departures is the way to go in the fight against illegal immigration. This year the African authorities have prevented the departure of 17,426 people. If these interceptions at origin had not been carried out, Spain would have broken all the records. Specifically, in Senegal and Gambia, interceptions have gone from 242 in June, 416 in July, 726 in August and 1,648 in September to 3,877 in October.
To work along these lines, the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska sent a CN-235 aircraft from the Civil Guard on October 17 to patrol the coasts of Senegal and Mauritania. According to police sources, the plane deployed in Dakar has detected nine shepherds in 12 days with a total of 886 people on board. "A highly effective result", as the Senegalese authorities communicated yesterday to the head of the Interior. In order to go further in this task, the Interior yesterday evaluated six new multicopter drones specially designed for the detection of shepherds' departures from the Senegalese Police.
The Spanish contingent in Senegal is currently made up of 38 units – 33 civil guards and 5 national police – equipped with four boats, one helicopter and thirteen all-terrain vehicles, to carry out joint patrolling missions by land, sea and air
Yesterday the minister held a meeting with a representation of the Spanish agents before meeting with his Senegalese counterpart, Sidiki Kaba, whom he asked to strengthen the existing mechanisms to "act more quickly" and avoid "more innocent deaths al mar" on the route to the Canary Islands. For the minister, this effort will also improve the prosecution of other illicit traffic and criminal activities
Interior is also working to prevent shepherds from reaching El Hierro, the last piece of land before nothing in the Atlantic. It is this small island of just over 10,000 inhabitants that has been suffering from all the migratory pressure since the beginning of September. The Spanish Government is making an effort so that it does not become the new Lampedusa. For this reason, according to the same police sources, a device has been established with an ocean vessel with 25 crew members and a Civil Guard aircraft to detect the shepherds before they arrive in El Hierro and be able to transfer them to Tenerife. This deployment has made it possible since October 16 to detect nine more shepherds bound for El Hierro, and has been able to ease the pressure on the small island.
