(Reuters) Spain will expand naval patrols around the Canary Islands and set up more migrant centres in response to a surge of arrivals from Africa, including more than 2,000 people last weekend, the regional policy minister said on Friday.
Security forces will add at least three ocean-going vessels, a plane, a helicopter and a submarine to the existing fleet policing the waters between Africa’s west coast and the Spanish archipelago, Carolina Darias told a news conference in Gran Canaria.
Almost 16,000 people have reached the Canary Islands after braving the Atlantic in the dangerous crossing from Africa this year — more than 10 times last year’s total — including 2,213 last weekend.
