The Government has resorted to two aircraft of the Army of the Air and Space to transport about 500 migrants from the Canary Islands to Madrid, according to what ABC has reported. The high-capacity aircraft have been sent to Tenerife and Gran Canaria in a new people diversion operation from those arriving at the archipelago, at a time of special pressure on the islands’ reception resources.
The mobilization of military resources adds to the charter and commercial flights that the Executive was already using to move migrant people from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula. The goal of these diversions is to ease pressure on first-reception facilities, especially in El Hierro, where the increase in arrivals has strained assistance services.
More than 4,000 arrivals in El Hierro in a week
The island of El Hierro concentrates a large part of the migrant surge recorded over the last few days. According to data released by RTVE, in the last seven days more than 4,000 people have arrived on board 44 cayucos, a situation that has led the island council to declare a social emergency.
Pressure on reception resources has also prompted the president of the island council, Alpidio Armas, to call for more human and material resources, as well as greater coordination between administrations. Among the measures proposed are the reinforcement of care facilities and the establishment of protocols to transfer migrant people to other islands with greater capacity.
The surge is not limited to El Hierro. According to EFE, during the course of this Sunday, 743 migrant people arrived in the Canary Islands, after the rescue of several boats in waters close to the archipelago.
Sánchez calls a coordination meeting for Tuesday
The situation has led the head of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to commit to the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, to call an extraordinary meeting of the Interministerial Commission on Immigration next Tuesday at the Palacio de la Moncloa.
The meeting will include representatives from various ministries and will also have the participation of the regional Government and the president of the island council of El Hierro. The meeting aims to address the increase in arrivals and to agree on measures to strengthen reception resources, healthcare assistance, and coordination between administrations.
Clavijo has demanded a joint action plan that includes specific measures, responsible parties, and execution deadlines. He has also requested greater involvement from the European Union in response to the upturn in the Atlantic route.
This is not the first time that the Government has resorted to military aircraft
The use of Air Force aircraft to transport migrants from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula has precedents. In January 2025, the Executive confirmed that it had used two A400M planes to carry out two transfers, one from El Hierro and another from Lanzarote, at the request of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
On that occasion, the flights transported about a hundred people each and were justified as an extraordinary measure in the face of high demand for places on commercial flights during the holiday dates.