STORY: State of emergency declared in Spain's Canary Islands over high number of migrant arrivals
DATELINE: Oct. 19, 2023
LENGTH: 00:01:39
LOCATION: Madrid
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST: (courtesy of Emergencies Canary Islands and Spanish government)
1. Spain's Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Jose Luis Escriva in a recent press conference in Madrid
2. various of migrants arrivals
3. boats piling up on the dock these days

STORYLINE:

Spain's Ministry for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has approved a state of emergency in the face of the high number of migrants arriving at the coast of the Canary Islands since the start of October.

According to government sources, 8,561 migrants completed the dangerous crossing to the islands (which are 100 kilometers west of Morocco at their nearest point) in the first 15 days of October.

That lifts the total number of people who have succeeded in making the crossing in wooden boats to 23,537 since the start of the year - the second highest recorded total behind the 31,678 who made the journey from the African mainland to the islands in 2006.

The main reason for the high number of crossings in recent weeks is that weather systems off the northwest coast of Africa have produced calm seas, making what is considered one of the most dangerous migrant routes in the world slightly safer.

The island of El Hierro has been especially affected, with 847 people arriving in five dinghies in a 24-hour period on Wednesday, while recent weeks have seen over 5,000 arrivals on an island of around 10,000 inhabitants.

The declaration of a state of emergency is to help speed up the arrival of finance and resources to the Canary Islands as a whole and especially El Hierro, and Spain's Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Jose Luis Escriva has announced he will visit the island on Thursday.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Madrid.
(XHTV)