Rights group: Over 3,000 migrants died trying to reach Spain in 2025

Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said most of the 3,090 deaths recorded until December 15 took place on the Atlantic migration route from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands, considered one of the world’s most dangerous.

While there has been a “significant” decrease in migrant arrivals in the Canaries, “a new, more distant and more dangerous” route to the archipelago has emerged with departures from Guinea, it said.

The group compiles its figures from families of migrants and official statistics of those rescued. It included 437 children and 192 women among the dead.

At least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2024, according to Caminando Fronteras, the highest number recorded since it began tracking data in 2007.