Migrants reaching Spain's Canary Islands near 32,000 this year

FILE PHOTO: Rescue workers search for bodies after a boat with 46 migrants from the Maghreb region capsized in the beach of Orzola, in the Canary Island of Lanzarote, Spain June 18, 2021. REUTERS/Borja Suarez/File Photo

MADRID (Reuters) - Nearly 32,000 migrants have reached Spain's Canary Islands on fragile boats from west Africa this year, passing a previous record posted in 2006, regional authorities said on Sunday.

So far this year, 31,933 people have reached the islands, compared with the 2006 small boats crisis when 31,678 people made it to the Canaries, regional authorities told Reuters.