- Immigrant Times
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
The sea route from Africa to Europe remains the world’s most dangerous migration passage
Arrivals on the Canary Islands, which surged dramatically in 2023 and 2024, dropped in 2025 following enhanced surveillance and cooperation between Spain, the EU and West African states.
By The Immigrant Times *
The use of flimsy, overcrowded boats is a primary factor contributing to the significant number of migrant deaths and disappearances in sea crossings. (Photo: AP / Francisco Seco)
January 2026: After a year that proved the deadliest on record, the number of migrants who lost their lives trying to reach Spain fell sharply in 2025. According to the latest report by the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, more than 3,000 people are believed to have died or disappeared along routes to Spain last year, a dramatic decline from the catastrophic figures recorded in 2024.
In 2024, Caminando Fronteras documented 10,457 deaths on Spain-bound migration routes, most of them at sea. It was the highest toll since the organisation began monitoring migrant fatalities in 2007 and cemented the Atlantic crossing to the Canary Islands as one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.
By contrast, the 2025 report records around 3,090 deaths between January and mid-December. Among them were at least 192 women and 437 children. While the number represents a steep fall of more than 70 per cent year on year, the organisation cautions against interpreting the figures as a humanitarian success.
“Behind every number is a life lost, a family waiting for answers,” the NGO notes, stressing that many deaths and disappearances at sea are never formally recorded.
The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands remains the single deadliest pathway. In 2025, nearly two-thirds of all recorded deaths occurred on this stretch of ocean, which separates the West African coast from Spain’s island territory by hundreds of kilometres of open sea. Overloaded fishing boats and inflatable vessels often drift for days without food, water or navigation equipment.
However, Caminando Fronteras also highlights a notable shift. While deaths along the Atlantic route fell compared with 2024, fatalities in the western Mediterranean increased. More migrants attempted to reach the Balearic Islands from Algeria, a shorter crossing than the Atlantic but one that is still extremely hazardous, particularly in the winter months and when vessels attempt to evade detection.
This redistribution of risk reflects a familiar pattern in European migration policy: when one route becomes harder to use, another emerges. Tighter controls, increased patrols and cooperation agreements with transit countries can reduce departures in one area, but they rarely reduce the underlying pressures driving people to move.
The decline in deaths in 2025 broadly mirrors a fall in the number of people reaching Spain irregularly. According to Spain’s Ministry of the Interior, around 34,000 migrants arrived by sea or land routes in 2025, down significantly from nearly 64,000 arrivals recorded in 2024, one of the highest figures in Spain’s modern history. Measured against recorded arrivals, the relative scale of loss has also declined, from roughly 163 deaths per 1,000 arrivals in 2024 to around 91 in 2025, though deaths and arrivals are tracked through different systems.
Arrivals to the Canary Islands, which surged dramatically in 2023 and 2024, dropped in 2025 following enhanced surveillance and cooperation between Spain, the EU and West African states such as Mauritania and Senegal. These measures appear to have reduced departures, at least temporarily.
But migration analysts warn that fewer arrivals do not necessarily mean fewer attempted crossings. Many boats are intercepted before they reach Spanish waters, while others disappear without a trace. NGOs argue that the true number of deaths may be higher than recorded, especially when boats vanish in the Atlantic with no survivors to report what happened.
The Caminando Fronteras report also sheds light on the countries of origin of those who died. Many came from West African states including Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, countries affected by a combination of political instability, economic hardship and, increasingly, climate-related pressures.
In North Africa, Algerian nationals feature prominently among those who perished on the Mediterranean routes to the Balearics. The presence of women and children among the dead underscores that migration to Spain is no longer dominated by single adult men, but increasingly involves families and vulnerable groups.
Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has recorded more than 1,000 migrant deaths in 2025 across routes to Italy and Greece alone, figures that many researchers regard as conservative, given the persistent problem of underreporting at sea.
The central Mediterranean route, linking Libya and Tunisia to Italy, continues to be one of the world’s deadliest migration corridors, even if it receives less public attention during years when arrivals decline. In the eastern Mediterranean, Greece has also recorded persistent fatalities, particularly involving small boats navigating the Aegean Sea.
For Caminando Fronteras, the lesson of 2025 is not that Europe has solved the problem of deadly migration routes, but that enforcement-heavy approaches simply change where and how people die.
The organisation continues to call for expanded search-and-rescue capacity, safe and legal pathways to Europe, and better coordination between states when boats are in distress. It also urges authorities to recognise the role played by delayed rescues and non-assistance at sea in many fatal incidents.
Spain’s figures show that deaths are not inevitable. But they also demonstrate how fragile progress is when migration policy focuses primarily on deterrence rather than protection.
The fall in deaths in 2025 offers a rare moment of cautious relief after years of grim statistics. Yet the numbers remain sobering. More than 3,000 lives lost in a single year still amount to a humanitarian crisis unfolding largely beyond public view.
* Sources: Caminando Fronteras; International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
Further reading: Mauritania has been accused of human rights abuses against African migrants || African News ||
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