Madrid Spain.- The number of migrants who died or disappeared trying to reach Spain last year was 2,390, somewhat less than in 2021 but similar to that of the last five years, according to a Spanish NGO.
Caminando Fronteras said the number included 288 women and 101 children.
Just under 1,800 migrants died trying to reach the Canary Islands by sea. But the migrant rights group has warned of the “invisibility” of an increasingly crowded route from Algeria to Spain’s Mediterranean coast. At least 460 people died while traveling this route in 2022.
Caminando Fronteras noted that it compiles its figures from the information provided by migrant families and rescue statistics.
The International Organization for Migration, which uses official figures, has said that 2,556 people lost their lives trying to reach Europe, of whom 1,126 took the West African-Atlantic route and 260 in the western Mediterranean, routes to Spain.
The number of irregular migrants who arrived in Spain fell 25.6 percent in 2022, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, from 41,945 in 2021 to 31,219 in 2022. But arrivals from Morocco through the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla increased 24.1 percent.
A notorious border incident on June 24 left 40 dead, according to Caminando Fronteras. Previous reports reported 23 deaths.
That day, hundreds of men climbed over a fence on the Moroccan side of the border at Melilla and were herded into a crossing area. When they managed to break through to the Spanish side, several people were crushed to death.
