Europe: Migrant Crisis Reaches Spain
by Soeren Kern • August 16, 2017 at 5:00 am
- "The biggest migration movements are still ahead: Africa's population will double in the next decades. A country like Egypt will grow to 100 million people, Nigeria to 400 million. In our digital age with the internet and mobile phones, everyone knows about our prosperity and lifestyle." — German Development Minister Gerd Müller.
- "Young people all have cellphones and they can see what's happening in other parts of the world, and that acts as a magnet." — Michael Møller, Director of the United Nations office in Geneva.
- "If we do not manage to solve the central problems in African countries, ten, 20 or even 30 million immigrants will arrive in the European Union within the next ten years." — Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament.
Migrants
wait to be rescued by crewmembers from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station
(MOAS) Phoenix vessel on June 10, 2017 off Lampedusa, Italy. (Photo by
Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Spain is on track to
overtake Greece as the second-biggest gateway for migrants entering
Europe by sea. The sudden surge in migration to Spain comes amid a
crackdown on human smuggling along the Libya-Italy sea route, currently
the main migrant point of entry to Europe.
The
westward shift in migration routes from Greece and Italy implies that
Spain, situated only ten miles from Africa by sea, may soon find itself
at the center of Europe's migration crisis.
More
than 8,300 illegal migrants have reached Spanish shores during the
first seven months of 2017 — three times as many as in all of 2016,
according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
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