Up to 40% of migrants die attempting Canary Islands crossing, says former Spanish police chief

Up to 40% of migrants die attempting Canary Islands crossing, says former Spanish police chief

By Prosper Okoye

Tens of thousands of African migrants reached Spain’s Canary Islands in 2024, but as many as 40% of those who set out on the Atlantic crossing did not survive the journey, according to police inspector who spent years overseeing migrant arrivals on the archipelago.

Javier Leon, now a deputy team lead at FIAP and formerly chief inspector of a unit handling African migrants on Tenerife, said roughly 40,000 people arrived on the islands last year — a figure he said likely represents a fraction of those who attempted the route, which spans about 100 miles from the Sahara coast.

“We save a lot of lives,” Leon said in an interview. “But many are lost in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Leon estimated that for every 40,000 who arrived, as many as 15,000 more may have died at sea, based on intelligence drawn from satellite surveillance, fishing vessel reports and other sources used to track the wooden boats before they reach shore.

RECEPTION AND SCREENING

Migrants who reach the islands are met by police and Red Cross medical staff at the port, Leon said. Those requiring urgent care are taken to hospitals; others are interviewed — with the help of interpreters fluent in West African languages — about their nationality, route and the smuggling networks that organized their journey.

After several days at a police reception facility, during which migrants are fingerprinted and photographed, non-governmental organizations take over their care and arrange transport, funded by the Spanish government, to centers on the mainland. Unaccompanied minors are placed separately, in facilities offering Spanish-language instruction and other training.

Leon said migrants are not detained beyond an initial screening period of under 20 days. “After that, they are free to move wherever they want — inside Spain and even beyond,” he said, noting the absence of internal borders within the European Union allows undocumented migrants to travel onward to other member states without documentation.

DEPORTATIONS COMPLICATED BY DOCUMENTATION DISPUTES

Leon said the majority of deportations from Spain involve migrants who have committed crimes, rather than those working without legal status. He attributed some criminal activity among undocumented migrants to barriers to legal employment, including fines Spanish law imposes on employers who hire workers without permits.

Removals are frequently stalled, he said, because migrants often destroy identifying documents or misrepresent their nationality — sometimes claiming origin from countries seen as conflict zones to avoid deportation. Origin countries, including Nigeria, do not always acknowledge migrants as their own nationals even when language experts identify their nationality, he said, further complicating removal efforts.

“It’s not easy to deport them,” Leon said, adding that he believes both destination and origin countries share responsibility for resolving the impasse, including through coordinated reintegration programs run by organizations such as the International Organization for Migration. He said corruption in some origin countries diverts reintegration funding intended for returnees.

ALLEGATIONS OF MISTREATMENT DENIED

Leon rejected claims circulating among some migrant communities that deportees have been drugged or otherwise harmed by European authorities before being returned home, calling the allegations “totally false.”

“Never, ever, would anyone give them any kind of substance,” he said, describing legal safeguards including medical examinations, access to lawyers and judicial review available to migrants facing removal. In cases where deportees resist boarding flights, he said, authorities may physically restrain but not drug them.

Leon attributed reports of returnees showing signs of psychological distress to the hardships many face while in Europe — including poverty, homelessness and unmet expectations — rather than mistreatment during the deportation process itself. “In some cases, deportation is like a relief for them,” he said.

TRAFFICKING AND DEBT BONDAGE

Leon said many Nigerian women who migrate to Spain are coerced into prostitution to repay debts — often cited at around 15,000 euros — owed to trafficking networks that financed their journey. Victims typically live under the control of a “madam,” a former victim who has paid off her own debt and now oversees others, he said, with movement restricted to nighttime work arranged by the trafficking network.

Efforts to dismantle these networks are hampered by victims’ reluctance to cooperate with police, Leon said, citing fear of retaliation against relatives in Nigeria. “They don’t trust the European authorities,” he said. “They think the European police is the same as the Nigerian police.”

Prostitution itself is neither criminalized nor formally regulated in Spain, Leon noted, leaving those engaged in it without labor protections or access to social security.

CALL FOR LEGAL MIGRATION QUOTAS

Leon said Spain and other European countries should establish annual legal migration quotas tied to labor market needs, arguing that restrictive visa policies have not reduced demand to migrate but have pushed migrants toward longer and more dangerous routes.

He cited shifting conditions along the central Mediterranean route — including instability in Niger and Libya — as factors that have reduced the number of Nigerian migrants using that path in favor of destinations in the Middle East and Gulf states.

“Europe needs migrants because we need workers,” Leon said, calling for formal agreements between European governments and countries of origin that pair legal migration channels with cooperation on accepting the return of nationals who migrate irregularly, particularly those convicted of crimes.