Over 3,000 migrants died attempting to reach Spain by sea in 2025, according to a report by the NGO Caminando Fronteras. The figure of 3,090 deaths, including 192 women and 437 children, marks a sharp decline from the 10,457 recorded in 2024.
Activists attribute the reduction not to safer conditions but to tighter border controls that push migrants onto more dangerous routes. The number of shipwrecks rose to 303, with 70 boats vanishing without trace. Research coordinator Helena Maleno noted an increase in embarkations on the route from Algeria to the Balearic Islands, where smaller boats carry around 30 people, compared to the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands, which can have up to 300 per boat.
Spain’s interior ministry reported 35,935 irregular arrivals by sea and land up to 15 December, down from 60,311 in the same period of 2024. Much of the decrease stems from enhanced border policing in Mauritania, a key departure point, following a €210 million EU migration partnership signed in 2024. Human Rights Watch has accused Mauritanian authorities of systematic abuses including rape and torture, which the government denies.
The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands remained the deadliest, with 1,906 fatalities. The Algeria-Balearic route claimed 1,037 lives. The report also identified a new route from Guinea to the Canaries, spanning 2,200km. Maleno criticised a “necropolitics” driven by far-right parties, saying persecution of migrants harms human rights in Europe. It called institutional rescue responses “patently inadequate”, citing delays, insufficient resources, and limited political will. Victims came from 30 countries, primarily west and north Africa, as well as Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, and Egypt.
