ARCHIVED - Canary Island resources overwhelmed as more than 2,000 irregular migrants arrive over the weekend

2,029 migrants in 49 boats arrived in a non-stop stream over the weekend

Local residents protested in the streets for the second weekend running

Some 1,800 people spent the night under canvas in the Arguineguín Pier (Gran Canaria) on Sunday after a weekend of relentless pressure on emergency services as boatload after boatload of irregular migrants headed for the islands.

Between 00.00 on Saturday to 00.00 on Monday, 2,029 migrants in a total of 49 boats arrived, making this the weekend in which more migrants have arrived since the “crisis of the cayucos” in 2006, the year that 39,180 people managed to enter Europe via the islands. Since then, the numbers have fallen, reaching their lowest point in 2017 when only 423 migrants arrived, but since then, the figures have once again resumed an upward trajectory; in 2018 the figure was 1,266; in 2019 the figure grew to 2,200 and prior to this weekend 11,500 had arrived so far in 2020, to which must now be added the 2,029 who made the journey on Saturday and Sunday.

Salvamento Marítimo, Cruz Roja and 112 Canarias, have also added another 177 people to the total, who were rescued in the early hours of Monday morning aboard seven boats.

This situation has generated new friction between the Canarian government and the central government after the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, visted the Cruz Roja installations in Arguineguín last Friday.

The vice president of the regional Government, Román Rodríguez, reproached him on Twitter

yesterday for his "little commitment" to the migration crisis in the Archipelago. Fernando Grande-Marlaska has been to the islands twice this year to address the migration crisis - in February and last week and had promised to dismantle the encampment this month – but Rodríguez accused him of "little commitment" and “promises that are not kept while the trickle of people arriving by sea continues."

The gradual drip, drip, drip of arrivals was constant on both Saturday and Sunday, Gran Canaria continuing to be the island most affected, and within a few hours there were more than 1,500 immigrants in the facilities that the Red Cross has set up on the dock and which are completely insufficient due to the high number of people who have arrived in such a short space of time.

The encampment in the docks is in an area normally used by the fishing fleet and is only designed to handle 420 migrants at any given time.

The Canary Islands Government has become increasingly frustrated by the lack of assistance from the State and the EU, and has called for more cooperation with the countries of origin, improvement of surveillance and rescue systems, humanitarian assistance, aid in supplying decent facilities and aid in transferring the migrants from the islands, both to the Peninsula and to other countries of the European continent, continuing to reiterate that they themselves lack the resources and facilities to handle this volume of migrants.

Protests in the street by locals for the second consecutive week
For the second consecutive Saturday, a demonstration was held in the streets of Arguineguín requesting immediate measures from the State to manage the migratory crisis and specifically the municipality of Mogán, where the emergency camp that welcomes migrants is located in the fishing port.

The demonstration was organised by the Arguineguín Fishermen's Association, which demands the transfer of migrants from the port to equipped facilities and to be able to reuse the space that the camp now occupies for the manufacture and repair of tackle and other fishing equipment as is normally the case .

The mayor of Mogán, Onalia Bueno, and members of the Government group joined the demonstration to continue pressuring and ensure that the commitment assumed by the State to dismantle the encampment is fulfilled, given that the situation in what is already known as the "camp of shame" has once again overflowed.

On Saturday there were more than 1,000 migrants crammed into an enclosure designed for only 420 could be, and at least 45 amongst them are known to be positive for COVID-19 and have spent more than two weeks in the installations. "We continue to demand that the violation of human rights in the camp dies not continue, given that the camp lacks adequate space and infrastructure and minimal hygienic and sanitary conditions," Bueno stressed.

But by Sunday the numbers contained in the encampment had reached nearly 2,000 people.