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Sunday, 11 October 2020

Spanish Canary Islands overwhelmed by migrant arrivals after Covid forces Morocco to seal border

Tighter control of its coastline and borders by Morocco during the Covid-19 crisis has led to the largest migrant arrival numbers in the Canary Islands for more than a decade, with local politicians warning the Spanish government that they cannot cope with the influx. In around 48 hours between Thursday night and Saturday more than 1,000 migrants used small boats to reach the archipelago, a dangerous crossing of Atlantic waters where the minimum distance from the island closest to the African continent, Fuerteventura, is around 60 miles. The Red Cross said that all of the 1,015 migrants who reached the islands on 37 boats would survive, although some were showing signs of hypothermia and exhaustion. The migrants have also been tested for coronavirus. Earlier this year Spain and Morocco agreed to boost cooperation on the detection of migrants attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar.