African Migrants Arrive in Large Numbers in Spain’s Canary Islands

Authorities report that about 1,300 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa arrived this weekend in Spain’s Canary Islands, a seven-island archipelago in the Atlantic.

A single ship transported a record 321 passengers.

8,561 migrants arrived on the islands in the first two weeks of October, breaking an earlier record.

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The high number of arrivals is being linked by the Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska to the political unrest in the Sahel region, where there have been many coups.

The majority of the migrants prefer to leave the islands and find better life for themselves and their family elsewhere in Europe or the rest of the world rather than settling down there.

This article used data from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.