Last year, nearly 850 adults and children lost their lives or went missing as they travelled in make-shift boats to the Spanish Canary Islands from Africa. But still the flow of people continues.

The UN migration agencies have reported that the dangerous Atlantic sea route is now one of the main thoroughfares to Europe and the pandemic has meant that numbers are only increasing.

"We need to establish routes that are legal and secure. For them, we must get these moving, humanitarian visas that would permit people to move countries where they request and get international protection so they don't have to travel in small boats," said Estrella Galán, director-general of the Spanish Commission to Help Refugees, ahead of World Refugee Day today. 

Playing Politics

One of the possible reasons for the relative lack of government assistance could be the politicization of the refugee issue.

In Spain, the right-wing Vox party has enjoyed great success pushing an anti-refugee, anti-immigrant agenda. 

The party even organised protests in Gran Canaria last year after refugees were being housed in local hotels.  

That's even though the hotels would otherwise have been left empty as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.

But the refugee issue will remain as long as people feel the need to leave their countries to escape war, human rights violations or economic hardship.

Fleeing Persecution 

Refugees are not just those looking to enter Europe from neighboring nations.  Isabel, who prefers not to disclose her full name, is a human rights leader for indigenous people in Colombia.

She has applied to the Spanish government for asylum to escape the brutal persecution by organised crime, against those, like her, who dare to speak out.

"One of my colleagues Paula, filed a complaint to the police against these people. She filed the claim in the morning, The complaint was picked up by the police in the afternoon. By then, I received a call saying: 'Isabel, Paula is dead.' She was found with her child in the house, who is 10 months old. They went to the house, she was wrapped in a brown bag, she was smashed with a heavy pot. So basically, you leave or you die."

Isabel is currently waiting to see if her application will be successful. 

Organisations like the Spanish Commission to Help Refugees play a vital role but a more urgent coordinated international response looks to be needed now more than ever.