It is a record number since this NGO began to investigate the disappearances of migrants at sea on their way to Spain, reports the EFE agency. A figure that reflects the notable increase in deaths in recent years, since Already in 2023 the 6,618 deaths almost tripled those registered a year before.
Regarding 2024, Caminando Fronteras highlights that of the total number of people who lost their lives, 421 were women and 1,538 were children or adolescentsand emphasizes that the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands “remains the most lethal worldwide”with 9,757 victims, that is, 93% of the total. Meanwhile, 517 deaths occurred on the Algerian route, 110 in the Strait and 72 on the Alborán route.
131 vessels disappeared without a trace
The report Right to Life Monitoring 2024closed on December 15 and which details 293 tragedies that occurred on the different migratory routes, also offers another piece of information: 131 boats disappeared without a trace, with all the migrants they had on board.
He also emphasizes the “notable increase” in this year of departures from Mauritaniaa country that “has established itself as main migratory crossing point” towards the Canary Islands. 6,829 deaths occurred there.
Also, remember that the The Algerian route to the Balearic Islands is also considered one of the “most dangerous” due to its length and the difficulty of the journey.as it is also, within the Atlantic route, which ends on the Canary island of El Hierro. By month, April was the one that recorded the most deaths, with 1,284, ahead of May (1,103) and February (1,093).
The 10,457 deaths that Caminando Fronteras has counted belonged to 28 different nationalities: Algeria, Bangladesh, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Iraq, Comoros Islands, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo , Somalia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.
The xenophobic policies of the Spanish Government and the EU are responsible
All EU governments have increased persecution and repression on land, sea and air. A reactionary policy that in fact does not differ in any way from the agenda of the extreme right, despite the hypocritical speeches about “democratic Europe” and human rights. A good example has been the traditional Christmas speech of Felipe VI, in which he emphasized that migrations can lead to “tensions that erode social cohesion”, the “firmness required by the fight against the networks and mafias that traffic in people” and that “addressing immigration” implies “good coordination with our European partners, as well as with the countries of origin and transit.” That is to say, an implicit claim of the EU Migration Pact, which “while protecting borders and toughening the requirements to access asylum, subcontracts with dictatorships and other sepoy regimes such as Libya, Morocco or Egypt, so that they establish true camps of concentration of migrants in their territories.”
The Spanish State, whether with the PP governments or with the “progressive” governments (of the PSOE and Podemos first, and the PSOE and Sumar later), has become an example of anti-migration policy based on reactionary policies that have nothing What to envy those claimed by the extreme right: proliferation of prisons for migrants such as the CIEs, militarization of borders, fences with concertina wires, murder of migrants at the Melilla fence, hot returns, externalization of borders, deportation of Sahrawi activists a few weeks ago and, of course, support of the reactionary Immigration Law, despite the latest cosmetic reform of the Government.
It is not by chance that Pedro Sánchez has awarded the far-right Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, which “distinguishes extraordinary merits of a civil nature” for “contributing to the promotion of friendly relations.” with Spain and with the international community in general.” Letting migrants die at sea is one of those “contributions.”
To put an end to this chilling social crime generated by xenophobic policies, the militarization of borders and the tightening of repressive policies against migrants, it is necessary to impose through struggle the repeal of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, the closure of the CIEs and the repression of those who migrate, and freedom of movement and full citizenship and work rights for all. Native or foreign, the same working class!
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
