A new report from the UN refugee agency says the number of asylum seekers that have died or gone missing doubled last year, with land and sea routes becoming more dangerous.
More than 26 irregular migrants are still missing after a dinghy capsizes off Spain's Canary Islands as search-and-rescue mission continues.
Migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, use Morocco as a launchpad for attempts to reach European shores.
Over 4,400 migrants and asylum seekers have died or disappeared trying to reach Spain by sea in 2021, twice as many as in the previous year, a migrant rights group said.
At least two refugees died on a boat transporting more than 30 people after Canaries’ emergency service warned their condition was “much more serious” than the rest of the group.
Emergency services on the Spanish Canary island say 3,500 residents of El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane can now leave home as air quality has improved, but advancing lava has caused hundreds to evacuate in La Laguna.
Red-hot lava from a volcano that erupted on the Spanish island of La Palma reached the Atlantic Ocean, nine days after it started to flow down the island.
When molten rock eventually meets the Atlantic Ocean, it could trigger explosions releasing toxic gas but Spain's Canary Islands authorities do not expect large disruptions on the coast on account of the lava’s speed.
Mariano Hernandez Zapata, head of La Palma’s government, describes the area impacted as “desolate”, saying the lava was “on average about six metres high”.
There had been more than 22,000 tremors this week in the Cumbre Vieja area, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.
A boat carrying 200 people sank a few hours after leaving a Senegal fishing town, marking the deadliest shipwreck recorded this year by the UN migration agency.
Dozens are feared dead in a tragedy that bears strong similarities to a disaster in December in which migrants had drowned on their journey from Mauritania to Spain's Canary Islands.
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