Morocco complies with part of the deal with Spain after the turn of Pedro Sánchez over the Sahara. It closes the migratory faucet and intensifies controls on its coast with strong police and military coverage that includes shooting at boats resulting in death and transfers of migrants to desert areas, according to NGOs.. A pressure that, in addition, is causing the Canary route to become even more dangerous from more distant departure points to avoid surveillance.

“Moroccan police control is generating unusual, high-voltage violence,” Juan Carlos Lorenzo, coordinator in the Canary Islands of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR) told El Confidencial.. “We have recent evidence of shots fired by that police at a boat that was beginning its journey to the islands and that caused two deaths and several injuries,” he adds..

Lorenzo refers to a zódiac that arrived in Gran Canaria at the end of May. Two of its occupants died from gunshot wounds received while embarking on the Saharawi coast. Initially seriously injured, they perished during the voyage and their bodies were thrown into the sea by the rest of the passengers..

From the organization Caminando Fronteras, the Moroccan authorities are also responsible. According to the EFE news agency in the moments after this episode, the spokesperson for this NGO, Helena Maleno, related the event to “immigration control” by the military.. He also reported that a young Malian man died on the same shore from a shot to the neck..

For his part, Juan Carlos Lorenzo reveals that one of the repressive methods of the Moroccan military consists of displacing migrants to desert areas. “In this case, after the shooting, some people who did not manage to get on board were transferred to inhospitable areas of the border with Algeria.. This is the reality right now, a reality of acts committed with unusual cruelty,” he concludes..

Moroccan pressure forces more dangerous routes

In addition to these serious episodes reported by organizations that assist people seeking an opportunity in the first world, the police and military shielding on the Saharan and Moroccan coasts is forcing migrants to seek further departure points on board boats with increased passenger capacity.

They are the cayucos. Although the transfer of small boats and pneumatic boats continues, the cayucos have not been seen for many months and in the last 15 days up to seven of them have reached the archipelago. They leave from Mauritania, northern Senegal and even the Gambia to start a longer journey —between nine and 12 days— and more risky..

One of the last arrived with 154 occupants, after 10 days of travel, to the coast of El Hierro, the westernmost island. “That a cayuco arrives in El Hierro means that it has been about to follow a journey to nowhere,” says Lorenzo.

From the beginning of their itinerary, these boats avoid the African coast to avoid the patrol boat controls and usually immediately enter the high seas, taking the left bank of the archipelago and then heading north in a straight line.. “This is very dangerous, because a slight miscalculation leads them to get lost in the immensity of the Atlantic and to certain death,” says the CEAR spokesperson..

Statistics support this risk, which places the Canary Islands route as one of the most dangerous in the world. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) quantified at least 560 people who lost their lives in 2022, a figure that Caminando Fronteras raises to more than 1,700.

“A terrifying balance that is only an estimate to which an indeterminate number of invisible shipwrecks would have to be added,” says Lorenzo, who warns of the reactivation of longer journeys due to their unquestionable danger.

Regarding the influence of the controls in Morocco on those migrants who choose other departure areas that are further away, Lorenzo considers that many factors are intertwined in this decision, although police pressure would be contributing to their opting for less monitored areas..

A pressure that does not prevent the continuous arrival of boats to the archipelago from various African points. According to his calculations, only in the last 15 days more than 2,000 people have arrived, which are added to the 4,406 that the Ministry of the Interior quantifies until May 31, a figure lower than the 8,300 that arrived in the same period of last year.

However, the notable increase in the arrival of small boats and cayucos in recent weeks has different readings.. According to the Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, it is due to the good sea conditions. For Juan Carlos Lorenzo, “we have to wait a while to see if this increase becomes a trend or not, although the return of the canoes, due to their high capacity to transport more passengers, is a cause for concern.”