Two of the three boats escorted to port on Saturday were off La Restinga; a third was near Lanzarote. The rescues brought the reported total for the day to about 255 people, as El Hierro’s services faced a five-week influx of more than 8,000 migrants. The island has around 11,400 to 12,000 residents. In the first five days of November, more than 3,200 people reached the Canary Islands in 39 boats, according to figures cited by EFE; its tally for El Hierro was 2,300 people in 26 boats, including 307 minors and 11 babies. The Cabildo separately reported more than 3,000 arrivals on the island during the five days before its declaration, carried by about 30 cayucos. The figures were provisional, with different cut-off times as rescue operations continued.
The Cabildo of El Hierro declared a social emergency on 6 November and asked the Canary Islands government and Spain’s central government for more staff. Its decree also calls for staff rotations, allowing personnel from Salvamento Marítimo, the Canary Islands Health Service, state security forces, the Red Cross and other NGOs to rest. The request follows sustained demand on rescue, healthcare, security and humanitarian services during the five-week influx.
The council says the declaration will provide a framework for cooperation, protect fundamental rights and open access to budget funds for the emergency. President Alpidio Armas explained those aims in an interview with RTVE’s Canal 24 Horas. He said arrivals are outpacing transfers to Tenerife and Gran Canaria, while residents and the island’s hospital are also under strain. Armas said the situation had worsened in recent days and was putting pressure on the human and assistance resources available under the response protocol. Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo described the situation on El Hierro as “absolutely unsustainable.”
Measures in the decree include coordinated transfers to islands with greater capacity and stronger first-reception facilities. The Cabildo also says temporary reception centres are needed to ease pressure on the centre for foreign nationals in San Andrés. On 7 November, around 600 people had been transferred from El Hierro to Tenerife, while more than 450 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands that day, according to a report by Observador citing Lusa. In recent days, the Cabildo has worked to maintain sanitary conditions at the arrival area and provide temporary accommodation.
The council’s appeal follows earlier calls for reinforcements on El Hierro. Armas said action in migrants’ countries of origin was needed to curb arrivals, adding that practically all came from Senegal.
Salvamento Marítimo said its rescue service and the Guardia Civil dealt with three boats between midnight and noon on Saturday, 7 November. The latest report concerned an inflatable boat carrying 143 people, including 10 women and five minors, about 50 nautical miles from Lanzarote. It was described as the most heavily occupied inflatable recorded on the Canary Islands route to that point. The Las Palmas control centre coordinated the rescue, which the guardamar Polimnia carried out; the boat was expected to reach Arrecife at around 13:00 local time.
Two other boats were about 20.3 kilometres (11 nautical miles) from La Restinga on El Hierro. The Guardia Civil patrol boat Río Guadiato and the guardamar Urania escorted them to La Estaca, coordinated by the Tenerife control centre. One cayuco carried 44 people and the other 68. Reuters reported that maritime rescue services had assisted 3,261 migrants in the Canary Islands during the first six days of November.
