Morocco remains main launch point for Canary Islands migrant route despite crackdown

Nearly 41% of irregular migrant journeys to Spain’s Canary Islands now depart from Morocco, even as tighter security controls along the kingdom’s coastline continue pushing some trafficking routes farther south toward Mauritania and Senegal, according to a new report by the Mixed Migration Centre.

The report said departures from Mauritania accounted for 30% of crossings on the Atlantic route, followed by Senegal at 24%, while smaller numbers left from Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau.

Researchers said intensified controls by Moroccan and Mauritanian authorities had forced smuggling networks to increasingly shift departures toward more distant West African coasts, lengthening journeys across the Atlantic and raising risks of shipwrecks and deaths at sea.

Despite the shorter maritime distance between Morocco and the Canary Islands, crossings from Moroccan shores were also the most expensive. Migrants interviewed by researchers reported paying between 1,780 and 2,800 euros, or nearly 30,000 dirhams, for the trip.

The report linked the higher prices to tighter surveillance and the growing sophistication required from smuggling networks operating along Morocco’s coast.

Migrants departing from Senegal typically paid between 580 and 1,300 euros, while departures from Mauritania ranged from 580 to 800 euros, though some reported paying as much as 2,000 euros.

The findings underscore Morocco’s continued central role in Atlantic migration flows toward Europe despite years of intensified cooperation between Rabat, Madrid and the European Union aimed at reducing departures.

The Atlantic route remains one of the world’s deadliest migration corridors. Rights groups and international organizations have repeatedly warned that longer departures from southern Atlantic coasts are increasing exposure to dehydration, engine failures and disappearances at sea.