Published: April 26, 2021.
Cited by: Pakistan Point
MOSCOW, April 26 (Sputnik), Jonathan Rowson – Over the past year and a half, unprecedented numbers of refugees and migrants have made the daunting seaborne journey from northwestern Africa to the Canary Islands, and humanitarian organizations told Sputnik that governments and NGOs were forced to act quickly to build the necessary infrastructure to provide urgent care.
Less than 3,000 migrants and refugees, most originating from Morocco and countries in the Sahel region, arrived on the Canary Islands, a Spanish island archipelago, in 2019, according to data collated by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
One year later, more than 23,000 people made the arduous 60-mile journey across the western Atlantic Ocean to the Canary Islands, with many seeking an eventual move to the Spanish mainland.
Speakers
Jose Javier Sanchez Espinosa, the director of social inclusion at the Spanish Red Cross (Cruz Roja).
“We ended the year and we went to September 2020 with around 1,300 accommodation beds. And in three months, we had to open up to 10,000 new accommodation beds. The challenge was to create all this capacity to be able to give support to all these people in only three months,” Sanchez Espinosa said.
Maria Jesus Vega, spokesperson for the UNHCR in Spain.
“We saw in 2020 that the situation was really concerning in relation to these centers, and in particular Arguineguin, including a lot of people, more than what the port could really take, and people coming in very weak condition because of the trip and the treatment they received at the hands of smugglers,” Vega said.
Jonathan Rowson 