(AP) Spain’s government is stepping up its response to a surge in the number of migrants crossing the Atlantic from Africa to the Canary Islands, though there was little new in the measures announced Friday.
More than 16,000 migrants have arrived in the Spanish islands off northwest Africa this year, hoping to ensure a better life on European soil. In the whole of last year, around 1,500 arrived in the archipelago better known as a European vacation destination.
The arrivals are overwhelming public services in the Canary Islands, and the Minister for Territorial Policy Carolina Darias told a news conference there Friday the government will “enhance the measures already in place.”
That includes more spending on police cooperation with countries such as Morocco, Senegal and Mauritania, which lie on the northwest African coast, to fight people traffickers.
