(Reuters) More than 1,000 migrants reached the Canary Islands in the past 48 hours, the Red Cross said on Saturday, the largest number since a 2006 crisis in the archipelago.
Beefed-up security on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast is pushing traffickers and migrants south to risk the perilous crossing to the Canaries, located around 60 miles (97 km) to the west of the Atlantic coast, analysts and rights groups say.
Between Thursday and Saturday, 1,015 migrants landed in 485 boats in the seven Spanish islands, a Red Cross spokesman said.
Such numbers have not been seen since 14 years ago when more than 30,000 migrants made it to the Canary Islands, as other routes to Europe were blocked off.
