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More than 3,000 people died trying to reach Spain by sea over the past year, a sharp fall from the previous 12 months.
However, activists cautioned that the drop reflected tighter border controls that have forced migrants to take increasingly dangerous routes.
According to a new report by the NGO Caminando Fronteras, 3,090 people drowned between January and 15 December 2025, including 192 women and 437 children.
The figure is significantly lower than the 10,457 who died in the attempt last year.
Helena Maleno, the NGO’s research coordinator, said that while the number of fatalities has fallen, there had been an increase in the number of shipwrecks to 303, with as many as 70 boats having disappeared without trace.
She said: “This is because we’ve seen an increase in the number of embarkations on the dangerous route from Algeria to the Balearic Islands.
“These boats tend to carry around 30 people, whereas the ones on the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands may have up to 300 people on board.”
According to Spain’s interior minister, 35,935 irregular migrants arrived by sea and land up to 15 December, compared with 60,311 who reached Spanish territory during the same period in 2024.
Much of this decrease is attributed to tighter border policing, especially in Mauritania, a principal point of departure for migrants trying to reach Spain. In 2024, the north African state signed a new migration partnership with the European Union in exchange for €210m (£181m) in funding.
A recent report by Human Rights Watch accused Mauritanian authorities of systematic abuses of the mainly African migrants, including rape and torture – accusations that the Mauritanian government rejects.
The Caminando Fronteras report concludes that the Atlantic route from north Africa to the Canary Islands, which can take up to 12 days, remains the deadliest, with 1,906 fatalities this year. The increasingly popular route from Algeria to the Balearic Islands cost the lives of 1,037 migrants. The report also notes the emergence of a new route from Guinea to the Canaries, a distance of 2,200km.
Maleno described a policy of “necropolitics” fuelled by far-right parties, saying “the persecution and witch-hunts of migrants is having a huge impact on human rights in Europe”.
“The institutional response to tragedies at sea remains patently inadequate,” the report concludes. “Although there has been collaboration between countries in some cases, there are still worrying delays in mobilising rescue missions, a lack of adequate resources and limited political will to protect lives.”
The 3,090 victims come from 30 countries, mostly in west and north Africa, but also Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq and Egypt.
