DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Gambia on Wednesday as part of a tour of three West African countries aimed at strengthening cooperation in controlling illegal migration from the region to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Sanchez met Gambia’s President Adama Barrow and said afterward that the two countries had agreed to work together on security and on opportunities for legal, temporary migration, but he gave no details. “Spain, my country, wants to give new impetus to our relationship with Africa,” Sanchez said in the capital, Banjul.
It was the first time that a Spanish prime minister had visited the small country of 2.7 million inhabitants. Sánchez started his tour on Tuesday in Mauritaniawhere he said Spain would renew cooperation between the two countries’ security forces to combat human trafficking. He planned to meet with leaders in Senegal on Thursday.
The three African coastal countries have become the main departure points for migrants trying to reach African countries. Canary Islandsa Spanish archipelago off the African coast that served as a stopover for migrants and refugees trying to reach continental Europe.
According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, more than 22,000 people have arrived since January, more than double the number of irregular arrivals in the same period last year.
Sánchez also met a small number of Spanish law enforcement officers who are in Gambia to help the country with border control. Seven members of the Guardia Civil and two police officers from Spain have been sent to the country, the smallest in terms of area on the African mainland.
Barrow thanked Spain for the officers’ help in tackling illegal migration, saying they had provided “fantastic” cooperation.
Among the migrants reaching the Canary Islands are thousands of Malian refugees fleeing violence and instability in the Sahel nation, as well as young people from SenegalMauritania and other West African countries looking for better jobs abroad. There are also increasing numbers of teenagers and children travel to the Canary Islands alone, overwhelming the local government responsible for their care.
According to the UN migration agency, more than 4,000 Gambians crossed the deadly Atlantic route to Europe last year. Last month, a boat carrying 300 migrants, mainly from Gambia and Senegal, capsized off the coast of MauritaniaMore than a dozen people were killed and at least 150 others were missing.
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Renata Brito, an Associated Press journalist in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.
