'Immigration avalanche'

If you thought Malta had a problem with illegal immigration, then think of the situation in the Canary Islands. El Mundo reports that the Canary Islands’ parliament has asked Madrid to form a naval cordon around the archipelago, also requesting that the EU establish an emergency fund to deal with the “immigration avalanche” of more than 2,000 Africans arriving over the past 2 weeks. Spanish Vice-President María Teresa Fernández de la Vega yesterday travelled to Brussels to request EU support in dealing with the situation. A Commission spokesman described this as “not a Spanish problem, but a European problem”. This report from the International Herald Tribune gives an indication of the EU reaction to the Spanish requests:

The Canary Islands are suddenly the outpost of Europe most at risk of experiencing an infusion of refugees from Africa, and the European Union is reacting with alarm. "Europe has to wake up and stop staring at its belly button," Miguel Becerra, a senior policy advisor for this region of the Spanish government, said in an interview. "If Europe doesn't realize that this is a big problem and that it's going to get worse, we are going to be in real trouble."

The European Union announced late Tuesday that at least eight member states would provide planes, boats and other resources to help Spain patrol its borders. If a day goes by without a boat full of sub-Saharan migrants landing on the shores of this island, Red Cross officials here begin to worry. "We know they are out there," said Rubén Fernández, a Red Cross director in Tenerife. "We get reports that boats have left the African coasts. If they haven't arrived, it's because they have been held up by rough seas or have gone off course.."

Tenerife, the largest of Spain's Canary Islands, which lie about 110 kilometers, or 70 miles, off Morocco's southwestern coast, has become the focal point of a growing wave of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who appear more and more willing to take enormous risks to reach Europe. Over the past month, thousands of migrants have been coming ashore here on wooden boats after journeys of 8 to 10 days from the northern coast of Senegal, about 1,400 kilometers away. They come to start a new life, to earn money to send back home, or to flee wars, economic distress and political persecution, according to government and humanitarian officials who have spoken with them.

More than 7,000 have arrived in the Canary Islands so far this year, compared to only 4,700 migrants during all of 2005. Officials for the regional government here say they are overwhelmed by the onslaught. "It is time to realize that what happens in Africa affects Europe directly," Bacerra said. "As people realize that you can get to heart of Europe by taking a boat to the Canary Islands, the situation is only going to get worse unless Spain, Europe, and the international community come up with policies for addressing this."...