Canaries urge government action after 2,200 migrants reach the islands in 48h

Moving on now to some other news. Spain says nearly 2,200 migrants have arrived by boat to the Canary Islands this weekend. The Spanish islands are one of the main entry points into Europe for migrants from Africa. The Spanish Interior Ministry says more than 13,000 have arrived there between January and the end of last month. Now, that strip of the Atlantic Ocean between West Africa and the Canary Islands is one of the world's deadliest migration routes. And the journey is usually made with ill-equipped dinghies and overcrowded boats. Let's take a listen to what the Red Cross has to say. We just don't stop. With these shifts, we try to ensure the service doesn't falter so we can provide that care. We try to rotate the teams, because obviously a tired team doesn't provide the same level of care. And we try to give them that care quickly, very quickly, so that they're at least as comfortable as possible during the short time that they're here. To discuss this further, I'm joined by Andrew Hillier from our international affairs desk. So, Andrew, we've seen this uptick over these past two days. How significant is this? It's very significant. Almost 1,500 arrivals. In the space of 24 hours on Saturday, the arrivals coming from Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania. That's the most in a single day in 32 years, according to Spanish media. So it is very significant indeed when you look at the numbers. That beats the last single day record set in November 2020. 1,461 migrants rescued back then. Now, the reasons for this increase, well, the immediate reason is to do with the season. It's because we're coming into autumn now, moving even into winter, and that's the period of the year when... The number of crossings increased because the sea is calmer, the wind is less violent. Now, another key trend here that's worth pointing out is that there are almost five times, there have been almost five times as many arrivals last October as compared to October 2024. So that's a massive increase. And what explains that? Well, a few factors. One is the situation in Senegal. Political and economic crisis, political and economic uncertainty in that country, pushing people to leave Senegal and try and reach the Canary Islands, and also increased unrest in the Sahel region. And all of this, of course, putting pressure on the Spanish government to come up with some kind of response. And Andrew, with the Canary Islands always sort of on the front lines of the migration debate, what are the political consequences of this? Well, Catherine, the past few weeks have seen this issue placed firmly at the centre of the ongoing election campaign. in Spain. Last Tuesday, a migration emergency was declared in the Canary Islands. Now, the immediate consequence of this surge in arrivals has been the Canary Islands regional government asking the central government in Madrid for more support and also asking the EU to do more as well. Of course, you must remember that. The Canary Islands, of course, has limited infrastructure in terms of shelters and hospitals to deal with these rivals. And Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also facing renewed pressure from both within his government and from the opposition and Catherine from other European countries to come up with some kind of response. Some people wanting him to increase controls on irregular migration from North Africa. He was already under pressure. After those mass crossings into the Spanish-North African enclave of Ceuta in summer, we have national elections coming up at the end of this month. So the pressure is only going to increase on Pedro Sanchez to come up with some kind of solution. We'll have to keep an eye on that. Andrew, thank you very much. That's Andrew Hillier from our international affairs desk.