Over 235 migrants have died or disappeared on the Western Mediterranean route from January until May 27, according to IOM data. Landings in Andalusia were 92 percent more than the same period last year.
A humanitarian emergency as concerns migrant landings continues in Andalusia while the Western Mediterranean route towards Spain has become the deadliest in the world, with 235 dead or missing at sea from the beginning of the year.
El Pais quoted the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as saying that the number is more than that seen in the previous four years and that it is expected to rise. Behind the numbers are the stories of broken lives, of men and women fleeing violence and extreme poverty and many children who drowned in the Mediterranean.
The deaths and disappeared along the Western Mediterranean route account for over half of the total number of victims, 660 migrants, which the UN says have lost their lives in the Mediterranean in the attempt to reach Europe since the beginning of the year.
Andalusia main point of entry Spain's southern region
Andalusia is the main point of entry, with the arrival of 3,400 migrants in the month of May alone, some 92 percent more than seen in the same period last year. In 2017, a total of 7,376 migrants of non-EU arrived by sea in the region. On Sunday, another 33 people of sub-Saharan origins were rescued off Tarifa. The arrivals led to temporary reception centers in the region being filled to maximum capacity and emergency facilities have been set up to house the migrants, sources at the local prefect's office say.
Prefect Antonio Sanz estimated that 6,987 migrants have been rescued on 279 boats off the Andalusian coast, over 300 of whom in recent days. There is no space left in police stations, where a maximum of 72 people can stay for identification purposes, nor in the migrant detention centers where they can stay for up to two months while deportation procedures are started.
Mediterranean migrant flows down except in Spain
The situation is of concern beyond the country's borders. While the number of migrants arriving in Europe is dropping - with 30,300 migrants compared with 62,219 in the same period of 2017, according to IOM data - the landings in Spain continue to increase both across the Alboran Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar, along with the deadly risks the migrants run. The most critical point of the southern border of Europe is the 14-kilometer stretch of the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Africa from the European continent.
Migration pressure is also increasing in the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, border authorities say, due to a resumption of flows from Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Conakry and Sierra Leone on the Western route. The route had been abandoned in previous years when the central Mediterranean route through Libya had been more popular. With the greater monitoring in Libya - as attested to by the 6,642 migrants who were returned to Libyan coast by the local Coast Guard and registered with the IOM - patterns have shifted.
Transit countries overflowing
Concern is rising in Spain due to a saturation of transit countries that are ''partners in the fight against illegal immigration'' - sources say, citing Morocco and Algeria as examples - forced to deal with huge migrant flows and be transformed into countries of both reception and destination, with the problems that this leads to regarding their precarious economies.