El Hierro in Canary Islands declares emergency over migrant arrivals

The island of El Hierro, part of the Canary archipelago and home to around 12,000 people, has declared a state of emergency: local authorities cannot cope with the flow of migrants arriving by boat from Africa. This was reported by the Spanish broadcaster RTVE.

The head of the island council, Alpidio Armas, said the boats are bringing in more people than can be transferred to Tenerife and Gran Canaria. “We are not able to transport that many people,” he said, adding that the islanders themselves are also stretched to the limit.

Hospital at breaking point

Armas described the situation at El Hierro’s hospital as extremely dire. According to him, additional premises and resources are needed to relieve the pressure on medical staff. The measures being taken, he stressed, must make it possible to provide humanitarian aid while keeping the island’s everyday life running.

In the decree declaring the emergency, the island’s leadership asks the regional government of the Canary Islands and the Spanish government to send more emergency and rescue personnel, including the coast guard. More medics and Red Cross staff are also needed so that workers who are already exhausted can be replaced.

The numbers behind the migration wave

El Hierro’s authorities are trying to arrange for some of the migrants to be taken in by other Canary Islands, which have more places in reception centres.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), around 13,300 migrants arrived in the Canaries from the start of the year to the end of October. That is more than a third of all those who reached Spain over the period. In total, from January to October about 33,000 people arrived in the country by sea, fleeing armed conflicts and severe economic hardship in Africa.

Earlier, at the end of July, Spain faced an unprecedented surge in Ceuta, on the north coast of Africa: in a single day, about 75,000 people swam or crossed the border from Morocco. The vast majority soon returned on their own, but roughly 10,000 migrants are still there.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz