Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI:MORE than 3,000 people died trying to reach Spain by sea over the past year. Most of them were from west and north Africa, according to a Guardian report. Though the number of fatalities marked a sharp fall from the previous 12 months, activists cautioned that the drop reflected tighter border controls that have forced migrants to take increasingly dangerous routes. According to a new report by the NGO Caminando Fronteras, 3,090 people drowned between January and 15 December 2025, including 192 women and 437 children.
Helena Maleno, the NGO’s research coordinator, said that while the number of fatalities has fallen, there had been an increase in the number of shipwrecks to 303, with as many as 70 boats having disappeared without trace.
According to Spain’s Interior Minister, 35,935 irregular migrants arrived by sea and land up to 15 December, compared with 60,311 who reached Spanish territory during the same period in 2024. In 2024, the north African state signed a new migration partnership with the European Union in exchange for €210m (£181m) in funding.
The Caminando Fronteras report concludes that the Atlantic route from north Africa to the Canary Islands, which can take up to 12 days, remains the deadliest, with 1,906 fatalities this year. The increasingly popular route from Algeria to the Balearic Islands cost the lives of 1,037 migrants. The report also notes the emergence of a new route from Guinea to the Canaries, a distance of 2,200km.
