Surge in migrant boats to Canary Islands engulfs Spain’s election campaign

An sharp increase in numbers of migrants travelling from west Africa to the Spanish island of El Hierro in small boats has led to an emergency being declared there and ensured the issue is firmly at the centre of the general election campaign.About 7,500 migrants have reached the Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, since the beginning of November, according to the local government. Most of those have arrived at the small island of El Hierro, which has a population of about 6,000.On Monday, the president of the Canary Islands local government, Fernando Clavijo, warned that the situation on El Hierro and the rest of the archipelago was one of “extreme seriousness” and he called for an immediate response from the national authorities. “We’ve been demanding this for months but the Canary Islands government is not listened to, we were labelled alarmist,” Clavijo said.READ MORELast Friday, authorities on El Hierro declared a social emergency, a legal measure easing the deployment of emergency personnel and the use of state funds.The head of the island’s local authority, Alpidio Armas, said “practically all” those arriving were coming from Senegal.The Canary Islands are one of the main migrant routes into Europe. The number of those attempting the extremely dangerous voyage depends in great part on the weather and on social and political factors in countries of origin.[ The battle to reverse Europe’s big immigration experimentOpens in new window ]In October, more than 6,000 people reached the islands, five times more than during the same month in 2025.Last week, at least 39 people are believed to have died making the journey when their boat capsized shortly after departing from the coast of Senegal.“No departure should have the sea as its only destination,” said Senegalese president Bassirou Diomaye Faye. “We will tirelessly continue the battle against those who organise these crossings and we will [create] the jobs that give our young people reasons to stay here.”This is the second instance of large numbers of migrants entering Spanish territory in recent months. In July, more than 70,000 people entered the city of Ceuta, in North Africa, in the space of just a few hours, having swum around the border fence from Morocco. Although most of the arrivals returned soon after, several thousand have remained in the city, drawing complaints from local people who say they do not feel safe and that the migrants are straining public services.[ ‘It was day 13 or 14 when people started dying’: More than 200 set sail for Europe. Only 36 survivedOpens in new window ]The situation has become a political headache for Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez, with protests across the country supporting the grievances of Ceutans and demanding a firmer stance by Madrid with Morocco, which many believe allowed or even organised the mass crossing.With a general election on November 29th, immigration is a priority issue for parties on the right on the campaign trail. The opposition has accused Sánchez of encouraging undocumented migrants to enter the country with a recent mass regularisation programme. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP), criticised the prime minister for transferring some of the migrants arriving in the Canary Islands to the mainland.“You were incapable of preventing the invasion of Ceuta ... and now you deploy military aircraft to move migrants to the [Iberian] peninsula when the Canary Islands have been begging for help for months,” he said. The PP is leading Sánchez’s Socialists in polls and appears poised to form a coalition with the far-right Vox after the election.When asked about his party’s immigration policy if it entered government, Vox leader Santiago Abascal said “the army would be deployed along the border and the navy deployed at sea”.Abascal has blamed migrants for the country’s housing crisis. On Wednesday, housing activists are due to lead a general strike in protest at high rental costs.