El Hierro declares emergency over migrant arrivals

Authorities on Spain's Canary island of El Hierro declared an emergency on Saturday after a surge in migrant boat arrivals and called for help from higher levels of government.

Local authorities said more than 3,300 people had arrived on the island aboard around 30 boats since the start of November. Officials are seeking temporary accommodation for the new arrivals.

“We are very concerned... by this sharp increase in arrivals,” Alpidio Armas, head of El Hierro's governing council, told Spanish television. He said the emergency declaration was intended to create a framework for cooperation with higher-level institutions.

Armas said conditions at the island's hospital had become “undesirable”. Local authorities also warned that a storm expected overnight could make the crossing more dangerous for migrants currently at sea.

Two dead migrants were found on a boat trying to reach the Canaries earlier this week, while survivors said another five people died during the voyage.

Senegalese police said on Saturday that they had intercepted 142 undocumented migrants, including women and young children, as they tried to reach the Canary Islands on Friday off the coast of Dakar.

Spain's interior ministry said 13,327 irregular migrants arrived in the Canary Islands by sea between January 1 and October 31, down 5.5 percent from the same period last year. The islands recorded more than 46,000 arrivals in 2024, before numbers fell largely because of tighter surveillance and increased cooperation with countries of origin and transit.

This time of year usually brings more arrivals to the Canary Islands because of favourable sailing conditions. Increased patrols off Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco have pushed some migrants to leave from farther south, including from Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea, making the crossings longer.