At least 881 migrants from Africa arrived in small boats to Spain’s Canary Islands on Friday, coast guards told Spanish broadcaster TVE.
More than half were rescued off the coast of the small island of El Hierro, which has a population of just over 11,000.
On Thursday, the local government of El Hierro released an institutional statement, warning that this is the “beginning of a mass exodus of migrants,” mainly coming from Senegal, according to the data they received from nongovernmental organizations and state information.
“Thousands of people in Africa are waiting to set sail in search of a better life, which means the crisis of migrants, and even refugees … will increase in the coming weeks and months,” said the statement, which also called for an emergency international summit on the island.
When the government released the statement, the island had seen more than 3,000 irregular migrant arrivals since August.
On Friday, at least 441 more people were rescued off the island’s coast and brought to shore. According to Spanish daily El Pais, authorities are expecting more arrivals before the end of the day.
The migrants who arrive in El Hierro are attended to and sent to other islands as soon as possible. Even so, the community is struggling to cope with the influx.
“Besides being an empathetic people, with first-hand knowledge of what emigration is, we are not prepared – due to size, population and resources – to manage this number of migrants,” said the statement issued by El Hierro on Thursday.
Meanwhile, on Friday, three other ships reached the island of Tenerife, while another three reached the Gran Canaria, bringing the estimated number of arrivals in a single day close to a record-breaking 900 migrants.
Elsewhere in Spain, EU leaders concluded an informal summit to discuss the future of the bloc.
After clashes with Hungary and Poland, a joint declaration issued in the city of Granada did not touch on the EU’s migration plans.
Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 of this year, nearly 15,000 irregular migrants reached the Canary Islands by sea, up 20% from 2022, according to the Interior Ministry.