Boatloads of migrants arrive in south Tenerife daily, according to locals (Image: Getty)
Small boats filled with migrants from Africa are an almost daily occurrence on the south west coast of holiday hotspot Tenerife, according to worried locals.
Rescues by lifeboat of migrants spotted heading towards the shore in large wooden boats are also becoming more common according to those working in the tourist industry in the popular resort of Playa de las Americas.
Increasing numbers of people are making extremely perilous boat trips from the coast of northwest Africa to the Canary Islands, including Tenerife, as they are seen as a gateway to Europe.
Boatloads of rescued people have been brought to shore past shocked Brits and other tourists as they sun themselves at Playa de las Americas.
On August 15 a large cayuco (wooden boat) carrying 180 people, including 29 children, was intercepted by a lifeboat off the coast of south Tenerife.
It had crossed from west Africa and was brought to the port of Los Cristianos passing a packed beach of holidaymakers, according to the Canarian Weekly.
READ MORE: Tenerife says ‘enough is enough – stop turning Canary Islands into refugee camp’
The first view of Tenerife for many migrants as their boat nears the shore (Image: Jon Austin)
It is more than 180 miles as the crow flies from the African coast to southern Tenerife, making it like crossing the Channel from France to the English south coast seven times.
But, boats containing as many as 180 people, are reportedly setting off from as far away as Senegal, about 900 miles from the island.
It is seen as one of the most perilous migrant routes in the world, that has led to hundreds of deaths.
It is being described as the Canary island’s worst migrant crisis for almost 20 years since 2006.
Around 30,000 are believed to have arrived across the Canary Islands in the past year.
One bar worker on the beach at Playa de las Americas said: “We see at least one boat come over the sea most days. Sometimes more. You can see the lifeboat going out to them. I think this is making more come.”
Men from Africa selling ‘designer’ items along the Golden Mile in Playa de las Américas (Image: Jon Austin)
The resort is a hotspot for dolphin and pilot whale spotting boat trips, due to their year round presence.
The man added: “It has never been so many like this before. If you go whale watching you will most likely see a boat of migrants first, I think.
“I don’t know where they go, because even we cannot afford the rents here now, but I think some of them are selling the bags and the sunglasses you see on the streets.”
Across Tenerife, and other Canary islands on the tourist map, African men can be seen selling “cheap” items such as sunglasses as they walk from restaurant to bar and along the beaches.
Others set up static makeshifts stalls to sell what look like designer bags and other items, many of which are believed to be counterfeit.
Express.co.uk asked one sunglasses seller where he came from and he said Senegal.
An African beach seller at Puerto Colón (Image: Jon Austin)
But, asked how he got to the island he said he had come on a regular flight rather than crossing by boat.
Others selling such items were seen wearing Senegal T-shirts.
According to experts, stricter patrols of the shorter Mediterranean crossings from northern Africa to Greece and Italy and also from more northern parts of Africa to the northern edge of the Canaries, a shorter route, has led to the new longer routes from Mauritania and Senegal being used in large numbers in the past 12 months.
Mainland Spain has been reportedly slow to react even though figures in March from Spain’s Ministry of the Interior showed that, since the beginning of 2024, 12,393 migrants had landed in the Canary Islands on 190 boats, which was five times more than for the same period in 2023.
The most impacted Canary Island is the lesser known El Hierro, about 80 miles south west of Tenerife.
It is off the tourist trail with a population of 11,000, but 40,000 migrants have arrived there in about 250 boats in the past year.
A lifeboat returning to the port of Los Cristianos after intercepting migrants earlier this month, according to locals (Image: Jon Austin)
A man involved in taking tourists on boats to explore the Tenerife coastline said: “Four times the number of people who live there have arrived by boat in the last year. What is going on?
“They had to set up a processing centre on El Hierro. But, they can’t all stay there. The rumour is that the ferries ‘allow’ some of them to come over to Tenerife to get the numbers down. Where they go after that we don’t know.
“But now we see the boats coming over every day and the lifeboat from Los Cristianos goes out to meet the boats most days.”
Javier Armas, a Senator for the Canary Islands in the Spanish Parliament is trying to warn Madrid about the seriousness of the situation.
In July he told a France 24 video report that six months ago there had been no need for facilities for migrants on the small island.
A boat from Africa arrives at El Hierro one of the smaller of the Canary Islands (Image: Getty)
Many of the new arrivals are believed to end up at a migrant camp at San Cristobal De La Laguna on the outskirts of Tenerife’s northern airport, but it can only reportedly house up to 2,000 people at a time.
Friction continues to rise over the issue on the mainland and Tenerife’s president, Rosa Dávila, issued a stark warning this month to Spain’s central government over its handling of the growing migrant crisis, calling for an immediate halt to the transformation of the Canary Islands into a “refugee camp.”
In a statement, Dávila, the President of the Tenerife Council, said: “Tenerife says no. This is not the way. We have already said enough is enough.”
It came after the Spanish Ministry of Defence offered two disused military facilities in San Cristóbal de La Laguna to house unaccompanied migrant minors.
