Spain seeks to curb migrant stream to Canary Islands

MADRID — More than 400 migrants arrived by oversea successful Spain’s Canary Islands implicit a 24-hour period, exigency services said connected Thursday, arsenic the Spanish authorities discussed with Algerian officials ways of warring amerciable migration from North Africa to Europe.

Most of the migrants came from sub-Saharan Africa but they besides included astatine slightest 8 from Bangladesh.

The migrants were connected 7 boats approaching the archipelago disconnected northwest Africa, authorities said.

Migrant arrivals successful the Canary Islands person surged this year, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry. Up until Oct. 31, 17,000 migrants reached the archipelago - up 44% implicit the aforesaid play past year.

Overall, the fig of migrants reaching Spain by oversea this twelvemonth has grown by 24%, to much than 32,700.

More than 4,500 Bangladeshi migrants reached Europe by onshore oregon oversea past year, according to the United Nations. More than 90% of them went to Italy, with Spain, Greece and Malta receiving the remainder.

In 2019, Spanish constabulary said borderline officials successful Algeria and Morocco had conspired with radical traffickers to smuggle hundreds of radical from Asia into Spain crossed the Mediterranean Sea.

A Bangladesh-based smuggling ringing fraudulently obtained visas to Algeria successful the archetypal measurement of their scheme, constabulary said astatine the time.

Spain’s Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, connected Thursday met successful Madrid with his Algerian counterpart Kamel Beldjoud, saying that Algeria is “a precedence and a cardinal actor” successful efforts to easiness migrant unit connected Spain.

Beldjoud was owed to conscionable connected Friday with Spain’s constabulary main to sermon ways of cracking down connected organized crime, including gangs that smuggle radical crossed borders.

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