AMID the white yachts and sparkling cruise ships moored off the tourist beaches of Tenerife, a group of African fishing boats bob in the water, looking battered after an arduous 1,500km (950-mile) journey.

“This one arrived this morning,” Juan Luis León García, a policeman, says, pointing to a canoe-shaped vessel in the bay. “They’ll take it to be broken up, along with all the others.”

These fragile craft have been arriving on the shores of the Canary Islands almost every day recently, each carrying dozens of migrants from as far away as Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia. Almost 3,000 have arrived this way this month, a record by a wide margin. It is ten times the number that arrived last August.

The boats are getting bigger and the migrants packed more closely together for the perilous trip, which often takes longer than a week. This month a “supercanoe”, holding a record 172 migrants, reached these Spanish islands off the northwestern coast of Africa.

Until recently the arrival of each boat was a novelty. Tourists sunning themselves on the beach have rushed to aid weakened migrants arriving on the shore, many of whom were suffering from dehydration and hypothermia; but among local people, including the many Britons who have made the Canaries their home, the steady stream of migrants is starting to cause serious alarm.

“It’s a nightmare,” says Shawn Butler, who has lived in Tenerife for 15 years. “Every morning I see them arriving on the beach — near-dead, some of them.”

The Spanish border chief said this week that 20,000 Africans had arrived in the archipelago since the first skiff washed ashore last August. Africans hoping to reach Europe traditionally crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, from Morocco into Spain, but the two countries have made the crossing harder, forcing migrants to make the much longer journey from West Africa to the Canaries.

Austin Wainwright, a British volunteer who is co-ordinating the emergency response team in Tenerife for the Spanish Red Cross, says that he sees harrowing scenes almost every day.

“There’s only so much you can do,” he says after treating the 201 migrants that arrived on Wednesday, many of whom had infections from sitting in stagnant water. “It’s extremely harrowing, emotionally. Many are just happy to be alive.”

The Government of the Canary Islands says that 450 corpses have been found this year alone; but it estimates that up to 3,000 may have died. The Red Cross believes that about one boat in four may sink in transit. Those who do survive the voyage are taken into custody by police, but if border patrol agents are unable to repatriate them within 40 days, they must be released.

Spain has a repatriation agreement with Morocco, its closest African neighbour, but a similar agreement with Senegal, from where most boats depart, collapsed after the first group of migrants to be sent back complained of mistreatment.

According to the Canary Island Government, only 8 per cent of those who arrive by boat are repatriated. Of those who cannot be sent back, most are flown to the Spanish mainland and can be seen sleeping rough on the streets of Madrid and Barcelona. From there, many hope to reach France and Britain.

Spain gave legal residence to more than 500,000 foreigners in an amnesty last year, boosting tax receipts from previously illegal workers. However, the Opposition has said that the move served to encourage thousands more to attempt the crossing.

Authorities in the Canary Islands say that they cannot cope with the influx. “We urgently need the Spanish Government and the European Union to take charge of the situation,” Froilán Rodríguez Díaz says as he tries to find accommodation for another group of new migrants. “We can’t be forgotten; we’re not that far away.”

After urgent appeals by the Spanish Government, the EU this week began deploying a multinational mission in the Atlantic to turn back the boats before they can reach open waters; but critics say that the operation, codenamed Hera II, is inadequate. It has a budget of only €4 million, enough to operate for about two months.

Spaniards have so far proved relatively tolerant of newcomers to their country. Immigration has fed the buoyant economy over the past decade and prevented the population from shrinking in a country that has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Many Spaniards have relatives that themselves were forced to emigrate to Latin America in the 1940s and 1950s, but the huge influx of African immigrants on the shores of the Canaries is testing the limits of their tolerance.

“Look, my relatives went to Venezuela – I understand people want to look for a better life,” said a taxi driver who would not give his name for fear of appearing racist, “but we’re only a small island. There’s not enough work here for everyone.”

Upon arrival, many migrants say that they were misled by traffickers about the length and danger of the voyage.

“They need to realise this is not the way to emigrate,” Mr Wainwright says, “but we have some tell us they would rather die trying to do this than stay in Africa and watch their families starve.”

PERILOUS VOYAGE TO THE PROMISED LAND

Spain has a repatriation agreement with Morocco, its closest African neighbour, but a similar agreement with Senegal, from where most boats depart, is in dispute

Sources: Spanish Civil Guard, Canary Islands Government, European Union

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