Satellite image of the Canary Islands [NASA].
COMMENTARY / Natalia Reyna Sarmiento
The global pandemic caused by Covid-19 has forced the application of quarantines and other restrictions in all parts of the world and this has greatly limited the movement of people from one country to another. Nevertheless, the migratory phenomenon has continued its course, also in the case of Europe, where the closure of borders during part of 2020 has not prevented illegal immigration, such as from sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, in this time of pandemic, the health misery of poor countries has added another reason for flight from the countries of origin.
The increase in migration in recent decades has been a consequence of various humanitarian challenges. Lack of security, fear of persecution, violence, conflicts and poverty, among other reasons, generate a status of vulnerability that in many cases pushes those who suffer from these circumstances to leave their country in search of better conditions. The emergence of Covid-19 has been another element of vulnerability in societies with scarce medical resources in the last year as well, while the arrival of migrants without knowing whether or not they were carriers of the virus has aggravated social resistance to immigration in developed economies. Both issues went hand in hand especially in the migratory crisis experienced by the Canary Islands throughout 2020, especially in the last few months.
Fourteen years after the "cayuco crisis", the archipelago experienced another B boom in the arrival of immigrants (this time the term that has become generalized for their boats is pateras). In 2020, more than 23,000 immigrants arrived in the Canary Islands, in crossings that at least claimed the lives of nearly 600 people. If in 2019 about a hundred boats with illegal immigrants arrived to the islands, in 2020 there were more than 550, which speaks of a migratory phenomenon multiplied by five.
Why did this increase occur, redirecting to the Canary Islands a flow that at other times has sought the Mediterranean route? On the one hand, the sea crossing to reach Europe still prevails, because in addition to the cost of airfare -prohibitive for many-, flights require documentation that often is not possessed or that facilitates a control by the authorities -departure and arrival- that you want to avoid. On the other hand, the difficulties in points of the Mediterranean route, such as stricter policies in the admission of refugees rescued from the sea imposed by Italy or the war status that Libya lives, where itineraries arrive from Sudan, Nigeria and Chad, for example, derived part of the pressure of the migratory mafias towards the Canary Islands. Morocco's attitude may also have played a role in this.
Spain has an interest in maintaining a good relationship with Morocco for obvious reasons. Its border with Ceuta and Melilla and its proximity to the Canary Islands make it a neighbor that can contribute both to security and to intensifying migratory pressure on Spanish territory. Precisely at a critical moment of the Canary Islands crisis, the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, went to the neighboring country on November 20 to meet with his Moroccan counterpart, Abdelouafi Laftit, with the intention of requesting financial aid from the Alaouite monarchy to put a stop to the migratory crisis. However, although in the following days a decrease of arrivals of small boats to the Canary Islands was registered, soon the arrivals were increasing again, leaving effectiveness of the visit made by Marlaska.
On the other hand, in those weeks, Pablo Iglesias, vice-president of the Spanish government and University Secretary of Podemos, called on Morocco to hold a referendum on the future of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony and under Moroccan tutelage admitted by the UN until the holding of enquiry to the Saharawi people. The admission in the same days of Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara by the Trump Administration (in exchange for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel) led Rabat to expect a revision of the Spanish position, which is aligned with the UN approach. The ratification of this by Iglesias and above all his tone of demand made the Moroccan monarch, Mohamed VI, decide not to receive the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, on a trip to the neighboring country. Other issues, such as the delimitation of territorial waters made by Morocco in January, expanding its exclusive economic zone, have increased the disagreements between the two countries.
In addition to the normal tension in the Canary Islands due to the arrival of thousands of immigrants in a short period of time, there were also health risks due to the pandemic. Beyond the fears spread by some about the possible entrance of people actually infected with coronavirus, the established protocols required to keep isolated those arriving in small boats, which caused a problem of overcrowding in facilities that were not initially adequate.
The Spanish Red Cross created areas reserved for the isolation of people who tested positive for Covid-19. In addition, temporary macro-camps were set up to rehouse thousands of migrants who were first housed in different hotels. The transfer of groups of them by plane to points of the Peninsula created controversies that the Government had to deal with. The entrance of 2021 has lowered, at least momentarily, the pressure.
