Canary Islands migration route picks up, but annual total falls

In the first fifteen days of October, the Canary Islands received 1,837 migrants arriving in small boats and canoes, which is almost three times the figure for the same two-week period in 2025, when 643 were rescued (+185 per cent), according to figures published on Friday by the Ministry of the Interior.

The sharp cumulative decline during the first half of the year means that the overall figure for arrivals in the Canary Islands since 1 January continues to show a clear decrease: 8,970 people compared with 13,491.

This represents a fall of 33.5 per cent, which is very significant, but much smaller than the figures recorded at the end of the first half of the year, when the percentage decline was twice as high (67.2 per cent).

Canary Islands: The decline remains steeper than the national average

Irregular arrivals in mainland Spain continue to fall, excluding the mass influx on 30 and 31 July, which the Ministry of the Interior does not include in its fortnightly report on irregular immigration published this Friday.

Excluding the arrival of tens of thousands of people over those two days, irregular entries into Spain have fallen by 5.9 per cent between 1 January and 15 October compared with the same period in 2025, with a sharp decline in the Canary Islands, where they have fallen by 33.5 per cent, and a rise of almost 52 per cent in Ceuta and Melilla.

Spain: 22,453 migrants arrive by sea

The majority of arrivals (22,453) continue to be by sea; these have fallen by 12.9 per cent and took place on board 918 makeshift vessels, compared with the 1,007 that had arrived during the same period in 2025.

As for sea arrivals on the mainland, these totalled 6,717, 9.25 per cent more than in 2025, whilst figures for the Balearic Islands rose by 10.4 per cent, from the 6,104 recorded in 2025 to 6,741 this year.

The number of arrivals by sea in Ceuta and Melilla is small: 2 in Ceuta and 23 in Melilla

Ceuta and Melilla report an increase in the number of people entering by land

The figures show land arrivals, including those who swam ashore, in Ceuta and Melilla, where the number has risen by 51.7 per cent, from 3,150 arrivals in 2025 to 4,777 this year.

Specifically, they have risen by 41 per cent in Ceuta, not including the tens of thousands of people who arrived on 30 and 31 July, from 2,890 to 4,076, and by 169.6 per cent in Melilla, from 260 to 7,010.