With the recent political issues arising within the United States government in relation to illegal immigration surrounding the border between Mexico, I became curious to see how immigration has been affecting other countries around the world. In Spain last year there was 8,162 African foreigners without documentation that succeeded in reaching mainland Spain by crossing the Mediterranean Sea which had approximately doubled the total from 2015. The illegal internment centers have been stretched beyond capacity in their facilities in recent weeks because of the major increase in the amount of migrants facing the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean. The International Organization for Migration reports that despite efforts to dissuade migrants into the European Union from Africa, they continue to come and are mostly landing or being intercepted in Andalucía.
In the beginning of January this year there were more than 60 migrants that were brought ashore after being intercepted around 60 miles off the coasts of Andalucía and around the province of Granada. This has forced the immigration internment center in Malaga to liberate arrivals due to overcrowding, placing most of them into the hands of the Red Cross. Some reports contain ideas that the sudden increase is due to the calm sea conditions in the Mediterranean and as they continue it is foreseeable that more problems of this nature will arise as more and more desperate immigrants undertake the perilous voyages in their attempt to reach European Union territory. In an article from the summer of 2016, there were a lot of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean into Spain because these attempts were generally associated with summer, when the sea conditions were favorable for a still hazardous journeys. Most of these Africans embrace the dangerous journey because they want to be able to plant a new life and most of them believe that if they go to Europe they will have a good life. This journey doesn’t always have positive outcomes though. In 2015 as well as 2016, over 2,000 migrants died in the waters or along the journey from many different causes in both years totaling over 4,000 deaths combined trying to get to Europe in search of a new life.
According to the International Organization for Migration, there have been almost 750,000 immigrants into Spain in 2015, with this number only accounting for the foreigners that were documented coming from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia alone. Immigration is an issue all over the world and especially in the past year, there has been a spike of these Africans trying to make it across the Mediterranean at any cost. Immigration is not just an American controversy but one that is going on all over for people just in search of a new life. An for people who want this bad enough, walls won't stop them.
