A surge in boats
Canary Islands government data put arrivals at 6,665 people on 66 boats in the first nine days of November, a 1,355% increase on the same period of 2025. Regional spokesman Alfonso Cabello presented the figures on Monday, 9 November, ahead of an extraordinary interministerial commission set for Tuesday. Of the 66 boats, 48 were located near El Hierro, which Cabello said received three of every four arrivals. An earlier ANSA report, citing provisional estimates from Spanish media, counted nearly 6,000 people on about 60 boats in the first eight days of the month. ANSA also cited Interior Ministry figures showing 46,843 people reached the archipelago in 2024, and said the current pace has pushed the Atlantic route back to levels seen in the worst months of that year.
The Salvamento Maritimo rescue service and the 112 emergency centre counted 11 boats carrying about 1,158 migrants over the weekend. On Saturday, 7 November, about 797 people arrived on seven boats, and on Sunday morning three boats with about 286 people were rescued near El Hierro. On Monday, Salvamento Maritimo intercepted four boats with about 500 people between the early hours and noon. Early counts given to EFE by emergency services were higher, with five boats and 578 people rescued since midnight, although those figures were preliminary.
- Seven boats with about 797 people arrive in the archipelago
- Three boats with about 286 people rescued near El Hierro in the early hours
- Four boats with about 500 people intercepted from the early hours until noon, per Salvamento Maritimo
- Extraordinary interministerial immigration commission scheduled to meet
El Hierro under strain
El Hierro, which El Mundo puts at 12,040 registered residents, has absorbed most of the crossings. ANSA reported that more than 8,000 people had landed on the island in the past five weeks. The Cabildo, the island's local authority, declared a social emergency on Monday and asked the central and regional governments for more staff, health resources and transfers of migrants to other islands. Its president, Alpidio Armas, told RTVE the declaration is meant to unlock extraordinary funds and protect the rights of migrants and rescue workers. He also said most of the boats had come from Senegal.
Cabildo data cited by El Mundo counted more than 4,500 people arriving in November on 30 boats, which were removed over the weekend to a clean point in La Frontera for scrapping. Government delegate Anselmo Pestana, visiting the port of La Restinga, conceded that El Hierro has been overwhelmed by the crisis. He acknowledged 'moments of tension' and said daily arrivals had at times passed 1,000 people. He put the point this way:
The Canary Islands should not have to face the migratory phenomenon alone.
Government response and political clash
Pestana said the reception centre on El Hierro held between 700 and 800 people, a figure he expected to change with the pace of departures to Tenerife. RTVE reported that the government had mobilized the Air Force and moved more than 300 migrants from El Hierro to Madrid. Minister Angel Victor Torres answered the opposition by saying he would not turn the Canary Islands into a prison for immigrants. Fernando Clavijo, the regional president, will ask the government on Tuesday for an extraordinary contingency plan with resources and transfers, and has warned the regional government will go to court if no response follows.
Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the Partido Popular, wrote on X on Sunday that the Canaries needed a 'serious' government able to close the border. In the same post he criticized the central government's president for ignoring requests for help that the regional government had been making for months. He urged that the problem not be spread across Spain or exported to Europe. His message included this line:
Is it that you still have not understood that your irresponsibility costs lives?
Unaccompanied minors
The regional government said the reception network in the islands holds nearly 3,000 minors. Unaccompanied minor arrivals were 216 in September, 347 in October and 438 in the first days of November. The Canary government argued that transfers of migrant minors remain well below what the national decree on the extraordinary migration emergency provides for. Cabello said he hoped Tuesday's interministerial meeting would mobilize the resources needed.