Spain lacks the resources and capacity to protect the rising number of refugees and migrants reaching it by sea, the UN refugee agency said.
The warning from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) comes as the Spanish coastguard said it on Wednesday rescued 593 people, including 35 children and a baby, from 15 small paddle boats, after they attempted to cross the 11km Strait of Gibraltar.
The number of refugees and migrants risking the sea journey between Morocco and Spain has been rising sharply, with the one-day figure the largest since August 2014, when about 1,300 people landed on the Spanish coast in a 24-hour period.
About 9,300 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea so far this year, while another 3,500 have made it to two Spanish enclaves in north Africa — Ceuta and Melilla — the EU’s only land borders with Africa.
UNHCR Spain spokeswoman Maria Jesus Vega said police were badly underresourced, and there was a lack of interpreters and a shortage of accommodation for the new arrivals.
“The state isn’t prepared and there aren’t even the resources and the means to deal with the usual flow of people arriving by sea,” she said.
“Given the current rise, we’re seeing an overflow situation when it comes to local authorities trying to cope at arrival points,” she said.
Vega said the agency was seeing a very high number of vulnerable people, including women, victims of people-trafficking and children.
“What we’re asking is for there to be the right mechanisms in place to ensure people are treated with dignity when they come,” she said.
Last week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that Spain could become more popular than Greece as a destination for people seeking to enter Europe, as some look for alternatives to Italy.
About 12,440 people have arrived in Greece so far this year, the UNHCR said. The numbers heading to Spain and Greece are dwarfed by Italy, which has seen 97,376 arrivals so far this year.
Although this is a reduction on the 101,512 people who arrived during the same period last year, the issue continues to cause problems for the authorities, with almost 5,000 people reaching Italy on one day in June.
“There have been three main routes into Europe for many years, for decades: the central Mediterranean one, the eastern one from Turkey to Greece, and there has always been Spain,” said William Spindler, a spokesman for UNHCR in Geneva.
“What is true is that when efforts are made to clamp down on one route, another tends to open up,” he said.
Agency figures show that most of those arriving in Spain by sea set out from Morocco, although some also embark from Algeria. The majority of the migrants are from Cameroon, Guinea and the Gambia.
Vega said the continuing instability in Libya meant people trying to escape the war in Syria were trying to reach Europe via Ceuta and Melilla.
She said the agency had noticed an increase in the number of Moroccans traveling to Spain, coinciding with the end of Ramadan and unrest in the Rif region.
Although Vega stressed that the situation in Spain was hardly comparable with Italy, she said Madrid needed to do much more.
“This could be managed quite simply if it were properly addressed,” she said.
However, “if there isn’t a proper response, we could see people who have fallen into the clutches of people-traffickers becoming merchandise. We’re going to see people who should have international protection facing danger if they’re returned home,” she said.
Statistics compiled by the IOM show that more than 113,000 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea this year. To date, more than 2,300 have died in the attempt, 119 of them while trying to reach Spain.
Italy has embarked on a flurry of initiatives to reduce numbers, including a diplomatic campaign to persuade tribes in the south of Libya to clamp down on people smugglers.
Italian Minister of the Interior Marco Minniti has insisted that non-governmental organizations (NGO) involved in sea rescues sign a code of conduct, which was sharply criticized by the UN-backed IOM.
Several aid groups refused to sign the code of conduct because they thought their neutrality would be compromised by taking armed police officers on board. At least three organizations signed it.
The Italian government remains under pressure, as neighboring countries have tightened border controls, meaning refugees and migrants are unable to head north to France or Austria as they have done in the past.
On Wednesday, 70 Austrian troops were deployed to the Brenner pass to help police with border checks, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The UNHCR said it was too soon to tell whether the recent drop in arrivals in Italy represented a downward trend or a temporary fluctuation.
Under pressure from the EU, the Libyan coastguard has stepped up interceptions of boats, while some NGOs have suspended work in the central Mediterranean because they felt threatened by Libya’s coastguard.
Both could explain the recent fall in sea crossings, but Spindler said: “We don’t have any hard evidence. We could see an increase in the next few weeks.”
Vega said the international community needed to do more to tackle the root causes of migration, such as conflict, climate change and economic instability, to reduce numbers.
“It’s clear that walls and fences aren’t going to deter anyone who’s desperate enough to risk their life and those of their children. Whatever lies ahead of them, it can’t be worse than what they’re leaving behind. They know they could die,” she said.
The Spanish government did not respond to a request for comment.
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