(AP) Migrants are increasingly crossing a treacherous part of the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago near West Africa, in what has become one of the most dangerous routes to European territory.
About 4,000 people have survived the perilous journey this year. More than 250 others have died or gone missing, according to the International Organization for Migration. That’s already more than the number of people who perished trying to cross the Western Mediterranean in all of last year.
In the week that the Associated Press spent in the Canary Islands to report this story, at least 20 bodies were recovered.
The increase in traffic to the Canaries comes after the European Union funded Morocco in 2019 to stop migrants from reaching southern Spain via the Mediterranean Sea.
