Spain to Extradite Turkish Citizen Suspected of Smuggling Banned Gear to Iran

Wednesday, 20 April, 2022

Spain's high court has agreed to extradite to the United States a Turkish citizen suspected of smuggling to Iran equipment that can be used in making missiles, circumventing an arms embargo, court documents showed on Wednesday.

Spanish police arrested Murat Bukey in the Barcelona airport in September at the request of US prosecutors, who suspect him of importing from the United States and selling in Iran fuel cells that can be used in powering ballistic missiles and biodetection in 2012 and 2013, the court said.

Iran was then under a UN arms embargo that banned imports of missile components and technologies. The embargo expired in 2020, but Iran remains under US economic sanctions.

In its ruling the court said Bukey had "falsely declared the material wouldn't be exported to Iran". He is also accused of money laundering.

During the extradition hearing, Bukey's lawyers argued the US statute of limitations had run out on the alleged offenses and that they had been allegedly committed while he was in Turkey, not in the United States.

Still, his lawyer, Llorenc Caldentey Morey, said he was not appealing against the decision. Bukey will remain in custody pending the approval of the extradition by the Spanish government.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3602881/spain-extradite-turkish-citizen-suspected-smuggling-banned-gear-iran.

With no sign of eruption's end, ash blankets La Palma island

October 31, 2021

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands (AP) — A volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma that has been erupting for six weeks spewed greater quantities of ash from its main mouth Sunday, a day after producing its strongest earthquake to date.

Lava flows descending toward the Atlantic Ocean from a volcanic ridge have covered 970 hectares (2,400 acres) of land since the eruption began on Sept. 19, data from the European Union's satellite monitoring service, showed. On the way down the slope, the molten rock has destroyed more than 2,000 buildings and forced the evacuation of over 7,000 people.

But authorities in the Canary Islands, of which La Palma is part, have reported no injuries caused by contact with lava or from inhaling the toxic gases that often accompany the volcanic activity. Experts said that predicting when the eruption will end is difficult because lava, ash and gases emerging to the surface are a reflection of complex geological activity happening deep down the earth and far from the reach of currently available technology.

The Canary Islands, in particular, “are closely connected to thermal anomalies that go all the way to the core of the earth,” said Cornell University geochemist Esteban Gazel, who has been collecting samples from the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

“It's like a patient. You can monitor how it evolves, but saying exactly when it will die is extremely difficult,” Gazel said. “It’s a process that is connected to so many other dimensions of the inside of the planet.”

Signs monitored by scientists —soil deformation, sulfur dioxide emissions and seismic activity— remained robust in Cumbre Vieja. The Spanish Geographic Institute, or IGN, said that a magnitude 5 quake in the early hours of Saturday was not just felt on La Palma, but also in La Gomera, a neighboring island on the western end of the Canary Islands archipelago.

IGN said the ash column towering above the volcano reached an altitude of 4.5 kilometers (15,000 feet) on Sunday before heavier wind scattered it. Many nearby towns and a telescope base further north that sits on a mountain at 2,400 meters above sea level (7,800 feet) were covered in a thick layer of ash.

The eruption has also turned the island into a tourist attraction, especially as many Spaniards prepared to mark All Saints Day, a Catholic festivity that honors the dead, on Monday. Local authorities said some 10,000 visitors were expected over the long weekend and 90% of the accommodations on La Palma were fully booked. A shuttle bus service for tourists wanting a glimpse of the volcano was established to keep private cars off the main roads so emergency services could work undisturbed.

Parra reported from Madrid.

Spain pledges quicker help for La Palma volcano damage

October 23, 2021

SANTA CRUZ DE LA PALMA, Canary Islands (AP) — Spain's prime minister announced Saturday that his government will speed up already promised aid to help the thousands of residents on La Palma island whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by a protracted volcanic eruption.

On his fifth visit since the Atlantic island was shaken by the Sept. 19 eruption, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that his government would pass new measures this week to help millions of euros in aid to reach those in need.

Sánchez's government had already assigned 63 million euros ($73 million) in direct aid, with another 6 million euros ($7 million) for the local farming and fishing industries impacted in the impacted area.

Lava flows from the eruption on the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge have damaged or destroyed more than 2,100 buildings, mostly houses and farms. The molten rock, which has covered over 850 hectares (2,100 acres), has also knocked out irrigations systems and roads in the largely agricultural area.

Though most of the island of 85,000 people off northwest Africa is unaffected by the eruption, part of the western side is facing an uncertain future. The lava flows are still going strong over a month later, gobbling up more buildings and forming newly-born land where it has reached the sea. Locals are also feeling the toll of the nonstop roar from the volcano and the constant series of low-level earthquakes under their island.

About 7,500 residents have had to be evacuated from their homes in prompt action by authorities that has prevented the loss of any lives. Most have taken refuge with family or friends but around 430 people are in temporary lodgings provided by the local government.

The Canary Islands government is buying up empty apartments to house those whose homes have been demolished. It has also pledged to modify regulations to help rebuilding efforts once the eruption finally stops.

But the end is nowhere in sight, warned Canary Islands president Ángel Víctor Torres. “We still have weeks ahead of us,” Torres said. “We are living through some very difficult times. (But) no resident of La Palma will have to leave the island to continue their lives.”

La Palma's volcanic eruption is going strong 3 weeks later

October 10, 2021

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands (AP) — Three weeks since its eruption upended the lives of thousands, the volcano on Spain’s La Palma island is still spewing out endless streams of lava with no signs of ceasing.

Authorities on Sunday monitored a new stream of molten rock that has added to the destruction of over 1,100 buildings. Anything in the path of the lava — homes, farms, swimming pools and industrial buildings in the largely agricultural area — has been consumed.

The collapse Saturday of part of the volcanic cone sent a flood of bright red lava pouring down from the Cumbre Vieja ridge that initially cracked open on Sept. 19. The fast-flowing stream carried away huge chunks of lava that had already hardened. An industrial park was soon engulfed.

“We cannot say that we expect the eruption that began 21 days ago to end anytime soon,” said Julio Pérez, the regional minister for security on the Canary Islands. La Palma is part of Spain’s Canary Islands, an Atlantic Ocean archipelago off northwest Africa whose economy depends on the cultivation of the Canary plantain and tourism.

The new rivers of lava have not forced the evacuation of any more residents since they are all so staying within the exclusion zone that authorities have created. Some 6,000 residents were promptly evacuated after the initial eruption.

Government experts estimated that the largest of the lava flows measures 1.5 km (.9 miles) at its widest point, while the delta of new land being formed where lava is flowing into the Atlantic has reached a surface of 34 hectares (84 acres).

The scientific committee advising the government said that if the delta continues to grow outwards into the sea, parts of it could break off. That would generate explosions, gas emissions and large waves, committee spokeswoman José María Blanco said, but should not represent a danger to those outside the no-go zone.

The Canary Islands' tourism industry was already hard hit by the pandemic, and officials were urging tourists not to keep staying away. “This eruption is impacting a part of the island, but La Palma is still a safe place and can offer a lot to those who visit,” said Mariano Hernández, the island’s leading authority.

The last eruption on La Palma 50 years ago lasted just over three weeks. The last eruption on all the Canary Islands occurred underwater off the coast of El Hierro island in 2011 and lasted five months.

Lava from La Palma eruption finally reaches the Atlantic

September 30, 2021

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands (AP) — A bright red river of lava from the volcano on Spain’s La Palma island finally tumbled over a cliff and into the Atlantic Ocean, setting off huge plumes of steam and possibly toxic gases that forced local residents outside the evacuation zone to remain indoors on Wednesday.

The immediate area had been evacuated for several days as authorities waited for the lava that began erupting Sept. 19 to traverse the 6½ kilometers (four miles) to the island's edge. On the way down from the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, the lava flows have engulfed at least 656 buildings, mostly homes and farm buildings, in its unstoppable march to the sea.

The meeting of molten rock and sea water finally came at 11 p.m. on Tuesday. By daybreak, a widening promontory of newborn land could be seen forming under plumes of steam rising high into the area. Even though initial air quality reading showed no danger in the area, experts had warned that the arrival of the lava at the ocean would likely produce small explosions and release toxic gases that could damage lungs. Authorities established a security perimeter of 3½ kilometers (about two miles) and asked residents in the wider area to remain indoors with windows shut to avoid breathing in any gases.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported from the island’s first eruption in 50 years, thanks to the prompt evacuations of over 6,000 people after the ground cracked open following weeks of tremors.

The flattening of the terrain as it approached the coast had slowed down the flow of the lava, causing it to widen out and do more damage to villages and farms. The local economy is largely based on agriculture, above all the cultivation of the Canary plantain.

Just before it poured down a cliff into the sea at a local point known as Los Guirres, the lava rolled over the coastal highway, cutting off the last road in the area that connects the island to several villages.

“We hope that the channel to the sea that has opened stops the lava flow, which widened to reach 600 meters (2,000 feet) at one point, from continuing to grow, because that has caused tremendous damage,” Ángel Víctor Torres, president of the Canary Islands regional government, told Cope radio.

Torres said his government is working to house those who have lost their dwellings. Authorities have plans to purchase over 100 currently unoccupied homes. Torres cited one village, Todoque, home to 1,400 people, which was wiped out.

La Palma, home to about 85,000 people, is part of the volcanic Canary Islands, an archipelago off northwest Africa. The island is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point.

Cleaning crews swept up ash in the island’s capital, Santa Cruz, while more small earthquakes that have rumbled under the volcano for weeks were registered by geologists. Favorable weather conditions allowed the first flight in five days to land at airport on La Palma, an important tourist destination along with its neighboring Canary islands, despite a huge ash cloud that Spain’s National Geographic Institute said reached up to seven kilometers (nearly 4½ miles) high.

Laura Garcés, the director of Spain's air navigation authority ENAIRE, said she doesn't foresee any major problems for other airports on the archipelago because of the ash. While the red tongue of lava lolled off the coast, the two open vents of the volcano continued to belch up more magma from below.

Experts say it's impossible to determine how long the eruption will last. Previous eruptions in the archipelago have lasted weeks, even months. “We don’t know when this will be over,” volcano scientist Stavros Meletlidis of Spain’s National Geographic Institute told state broadcaster TVE. “Volcanos are not friends of statistics.”

'My whole life in a van': islanders flee Spanish volcano

September 22, 2021

TODOQUE, Canary Islands (AP) — A wall of lava up to 12 meters (40 feet) high bore down on a Spanish village Wednesday as islanders scrambled to save what they could before the molten rock swallowed up their homes following a volcanic eruption.

The lava still spewing from Sunday’s eruption in the Canary Islands off northwest Africa advanced slowly down hillsides to the coast, where Todoque was the last village between the molten rock and the Atlantic Ocean.

The lava could take several days to cover the remaining 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) to the sea, experts said, but authorities and locals were taking no chances amid the unpredictable seismic activity. Residents hoping to save some belongings queued up so they could be escorted into the village. The lava was advancing in the distance at around 120 meters (400 feet) an hour, with smoke coming from its leading edge as it destroyed everything it touched.

Javier López said his house for the past three decades appeared to be in the lava’s path. He and his relatives had been staying at a friend’s house with the few documents, photos and basic belongings they had been able to take when they were evacuated on Monday.

“I’ve put my whole life in a van,” López told The Associated Press as he waited for his turn to try to recover a vehicle he had left behind and other valuables. “This is probably going to be the last time I see my home,” he said. “Or, in the best-case scenario, the house will remain isolated by the lava and inaccessible for who knows how long.”

Firefighting crews trying to save as many houses as possible from being entombed by lava worked nonstop overnight to open a trench to divert the lava flow. Melisa Rodríguez, another Todoque resident, was trying to stay positive and calm.

“It’s hard to think straight about what you want to save, but we are only allowed in for one hour and you don’t want to take longer because that would be taking time away from others,” she said. As the lava headed toward the island’s more densely populated coast, 1,000 people were evacuated late Tuesday from Todoque, bringing the total number of evacuated on the island of La Palma to over 6,800.

Authorities say more dangers lie ahead for residents, including more earthquakes, possible new lava flows, toxic gases, volcanic ash and acid rain. The lava, whose temperature exceeds 1,000 degrees Celsius (more than 1,800 F), could cause explosions, trigger landslides and produce clouds of toxic gas when it hits the ocean.

As volcanic ash fell over a wide area, authorities advised people to keep children inside as much as possible due to possible breathing difficulties. The volcanic eruption and its aftermath could last for up to 84 days, the Canary Island Volcanology Institute said, basing its calculation on the length of previous eruptions on the archipelago, which like the latest eruption were followed by heavy lava flows and lasting seismic activity.

Tuesday night saw a sharp increase in the number of smaller eruptions that hurl rocks and cinders high into the air, it said. The rivers of lava have swallowed up around 320 buildings so far, mostly homes in the countryside, and now cover 154 hectares (380 acres), the institute said. The lava has also ruined banana groves, vineyards and other crops. Prompt evacuations have helped avoid any casualties.

The volcano has also been spewing out between 8,000 and 10,500 tons of sulfur dioxide — which also affects the lungs — every day, it said. Life on the rest of La Palma, which is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point, has been largely unaffected, with undeterred tourists landing for previously scheduled holidays. Air traffic remained normal.

The Canary Islands are a popular destination for European tourists due to their mild year-round climate.

Barry Hatton contributed from Lisbon, Portugal.

Lava from Spanish volcano heads toward sea; no injuries

September 20, 2021

EL FUERTE, Spain (AP) — Giant rivers of lava tumbled slowly but relentlessly toward the sea Monday after a volcano erupted on a Spanish island off northwest Africa, destroying everything in their path while prompt evacuations helped avoid casualties.

The eruption occurred Sunday on the island of Palma, in the volcanic Canary Islands, along a ridge called Cumbre Vieja, where two fissures belched bright red magma into the air and set the glowing lava rivers in motion.

Scientists had been monitoring the area in recent days amid a surge in mostly small earthquakes, and authorities evacuated around 5,000 people. The lava was moving at 700 meters (2,300 feet) per hour, according to the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute. Officials said they expected it to reach the Atlantic Ocean around sunset.

The lava left black swathes of destruction through the sparsely populated, green countryside and destroyed around 100 houses, officials said. Authorities told people in areas where volcanic ash was falling to stay indoors with their doors and windows closed.

The lava crept into the town of Los Llanos de Aridane, which lies close to the volcano. Town Mayor Noelia García said people had been evacuated from houses all the way down to the shoreline. Mariano Hernández, head of the island’s government, described the scene in the area affected by the lava as “bleak.”

He said a wall of lava six meters (20 feet) high “is consuming houses, infrastructure, crops in its path to the coast,” state news agency Efe reported. Scientists monitoring the lava measured it at more than 1,000 C (more than 1,800 F). When it hits the Atlantic Ocean, explosions and clouds of acidic steam were expected. Merchant shipping was halted around La Palma.

Scientists say the lava flows could last for weeks or months, but the immediate danger to local people appeared to be over. Daniel Álvarez, a bar owner in Las Manchas, one of the closest villages to the volcano, was evacuated with his family on Sunday and was staying at the El Fuerte military barracks with some other 300 evacuees. He didn’t know whether the lava had consumed his home.

“For now,” he said, “it seems like it’s safe, but the lava is opening many paths. We have all of our lives inside (our house). We would need to start over again.” Canary Islands government chief Ángel Víctor Torres said officials weren't expecting any more eruptions, adding that air traffic in the area wasn't affected.

“There will be considerable material damage,” Torres told SER radio. “We hope there won’t be any personal injuries.” No further evacuations were expected, officials said. “The lava probably won’t take any lives, but it will destroy everything it encounters,” Nemesio Pérez, scientific coordinator at the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute, told SER.

The eruption opened two fissures, about 200 meters (650 feet) apart. Officials said the lava streams would likely merge before reaching the sea. The Military Emergencies Unit was increasing its deployment on La Palma to 180 soldiers and 57 vehicles, backed up with three water-dropping aircraft due to arrive later Monday.

People on La Palma largely live from farming. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the affected area Monday after canceling his trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. He praised scientists for monitoring the eruption, saying their work was “fundamental” in avoiding casualties, and promised that his government would help local people rebuild their lives.

The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute reported the initial eruption shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday near the southern end of the island, which saw its last eruption in 1971. A 4.2-magnitude quake was recorded before the eruption, which took place in an area known as Cabeza de Vaca on the western slope as the ridge descends to the coast.

Huge red plumes topped with black-and-white smoke shot out along the Cumbre Vieja ridge, which scientists had been monitoring following the accumulation of molten lava below the surface and days of small earthquakes.

La Palma, with a population of 85,000, is one of eight volcanic islands in Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago off Africa’s western coast. At their nearest point, the islands are 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Morocco.

Authorities closed seven roads. Hernández, the head of the island’s government, asked people to stay away from the eruption. “People should not come near the eruption site where the lava is flowing,” he said. “We are having serious problems with the evacuation because the roads are jammed with people who are trying to get close enough to see it."

The last eruption on La Palma 50 years ago lasted just over three weeks. The last eruption on all the Canary Islands occurred underwater off the coast of El Hierro island in 2011. It lasted five months.

Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

A previous version of this story was corrected to show that Mariano Hernández is the head of the island’s government, not the mayor.

Volcano erupts on Atlantic island; lava destroys some homes

September 19, 2021

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Spain (AP) — A volcano on Spain’s Atlantic Ocean island of La Palma erupted Sunday after a weeklong buildup of seismic activity, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands as lava flows destroyed isolated houses and threatened to reach the coast. New eruptions continued into the night.

The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute reported the initial eruption shortly after 3 p.m. near the southern end of the island, which saw its last eruption in 1971. Huge red plumes topped with black-and-white smoke shot out along the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, which scientists had been closely watching following the accumulation of molten lava below the surface and days of small earthquakes.

Víctor Torres, president of the Canary Islands, said that by 11 p.m. some 5,000 people had been evacuated from their homes. Most, he said, had found family or friends to take them in. The rest were in shelters.

La Palma, with a population of 85,000, is one of eight volcanic islands in Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago off Africa’s western coast. At their nearest point, the islands are 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Morocco.

A 4.2-magnitude quake was recorded before the eruption, which took place in an area known as Cabeza de Vaca on the western slope as the ridge descends to the coast. As the eruptions continued, at least two open mouths belched bright red magma into the air that then flowed in tight streams down the mountain slope.

Shortly after the initial explosion rocked the area, one black lava flow with a burning tip immediately slid toward houses in the village of El Paso. Mayor Sergio Rodríguez said 300 people in immediate danger were evacuated, roads were closed and authorities urged the curious not to approach the area.

The lava eventually destroyed at least eight homes, according to local officials, causing at least one chalet with a tower to crumble. Authorities warned that the lava flows could also threaten the municipalities of El Paraíso, Alcalá and surrounding areas.

Carlota Martín was at an agricultural plot her family has in Todoque, just downhill from the eruption site, when she heard a huge explosion. “When we saw the column of smoke, we thought it could not be real, but it kept growing and we knew we had to get out of there,” she told The Associated Press. “You leave, but you are also looking back because you want to see what will happen. Nobody knows how the lava flows will descend, but our plot and lots of houses in the area could be in the way.”

Mariano Hernández, president of La Palma island, said there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries but the lava flows made him concerned “about the populated areas on the coast.” “People should not come near the eruption site where the lava is flowing,” Hernández said. “We are having serious problems with the evacuation because the roads are jammed with people who are trying to get close enough to see it.”

Itahiza Dominguez, head of seismology of Spain’s National Geology Institute, told Canary Islands Television that although it was too early to tell how long this eruption would last, prior “eruptions on the Canary Islands lasted weeks or even months.”

The last eruption on La Palma 50 years ago lasted just over three weeks. The last eruption on all the Canary Islands occurred underwater off the coast of El Hierro island in 2011. It lasted five months.

Volcanologist Vicente Soler of Spain’s Higher Council said "the material appears to be very fluid, the lava flows will reach the sea sooner or later.” The scientific committee of the Volcano Risk Prevention Plan said part of the island’s southwest coast was at risk for landslides and rock falls.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled his trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly so he could travel from Spain’s mainland to the Canary Islands. “The people of La Palma should rest assured that we have all the resources and emergency personal necessary,” Sánchez said after meeting with local officials on the island.

Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona. Renata Brito contributed to this report from Barcelona.

Street parties celebrate end of Spain's state of emergency

May 09, 2021

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Impromptu street celebrations erupted across Spain as the clock struck midnight on Saturday, when a six-month-long national state of emergency to contain the spread of coronavirus ended and many nighttime curfews were lifted.

In Madrid, police had to usher revelers out of the central Puerta del Sol square, where the scenes of unmasked dancing and group singing mimicked pre-pandemic nightlife. Teenagers and young adults also poured into central squares and beaches of Barcelona to mark the relaxation of restrictions.

“Freedom!” said Juan Cadavid, who was reconnecting with friends. “(It’s) a bit scary, you know, because of COVID, but I want to feel like this around a lot of people.” The 25-year-old Barcelona resident was also rejoicing at the prospect of going back to work at a Michelin-star restaurant that has been closed for the past seven months due to pandemic-related restrictions.

Local restaurants will be able to serve dinner again beginning Sunday and can stay open until 11 p.m. But a limit of four people per table remains and indoor dining is limited to 30% of capacity. Police in Madrid said that local law enforcement officers intervened in more than 450 incidents in which restrictions were being flaunted, prompting the Spanish capital's mayor to call the scenes depicted by videos of street parties on social media "deplorable."

“Freedom doesn’t involve holding booze parties in the street because street drinking is not allowed in the city of Madrid,” Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said Sunday, appealing for citizens to behave responsibly.

“Each one of us needs to understand that we live in a society," he continued, adding that the end of curfews “doesn't mean that the pandemic has ended.” With the end of the state of emergency, bans on traveling across Spain's regions have also been lifted and many curbs on social gatherings were relaxed. Only four of the country's 19 regions and autonomous cities are keeping curfews in place.

In spite of criticism from some regional chiefs and opposition figures, Spain's center-left ruling coalition refused to extend the state of emergency, which provided a legal umbrella to enact sweeping anti-COVID-19 measures restricting fundamental freedoms.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said existing regulations should be enough to respond to outbreaks at the regional level as the rollout of vaccines is speeding up. Spain's number of new coronavirus infections in the past 14 days fell Friday to 198 new cases per 100,000 residents, although the central Madrid and the northern Basque regions have more than twice that rate. Hospital occupation levels remain high, however, with more than 1 in 5 intensive-care beds in the country treating COVID-19 patients.

Aritz Parra reported from Madrid.

Famed Madrid flamenco venue closes amid virus restrictions

March 04, 2021

MADRID (AP) — Artists at one of Madrid’s best-known flamenco bars put on a final outdoor show Thursday, marking its closure after 140 years because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that have shuttered entertainment venues.

A female flamenco dancer dressed in black performed in the street outside Villa-Rosa, while others threw flamenco costumes from balconies into the street and male singer Juañarito performed a flamenco song.

Others laid flowers at the venue’s entrance, lit candles and put up handwritten signs saying “R.I.P.” The Villa-Rosa, with its distinctive tiled facade, is a landmark of the Madrid neighborhood called Las Letras, known for its nightlife.

“The situation is now unsustainable, with so many overheads for a year with the bar closed without any (financial) assistance," the flamenco show’s director, Rebeca Garcia, said. "It has forced us to take the drastic decision to shut down.”

Spain: Catalan vote to test pandemic's impact on separatism

February 12, 2021

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Over 5 million voters will be called to the polls on Sunday in Spain’s northeast Catalonia for an election that will measure the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the restive region’s secessionist movement.

Pro-independence lawmakers have held power in the regional government based in Barcelona for the past decade. And although pro-union Socialist Salvador Illa, Spain's former health minister, is hoping to end the separatists’ hegemony on local power, the outcome is far from clear according to the polls.

Participation in the election will likely be lowered by a worrying rate of COVID-19 infections. As of Wednesday, Catalonia was reporting an accumulated incidence rate of 391 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past two weeks, which while below Spain’s current average is still considered dangerous by epidemiologists. More than 9,000 of Spain’s confirmed total of 63,000 virus deaths were in Catalonia.

The election comes after authorities had to tighten restrictions on social activities to stem another surge in infections. So while Catalans will be free to vote all day on Sunday, eating establishments will still only open for breakfast and lunch and a curfew will send everyone home by 10 p.m.

Interim regional president Pere Aragonès had wanted to postpone the election that he had called before a post-Christmas surge in infections, but a court ruled that it should go forward. Two other Spanish regions postponed elections in the summer until contagion rates dropped. Neighboring Portugal, which is being hammered by the virus, held a national election last month.

Catalan authorities are taking extra precautions, including using traditional food markets, sports pavilions, and an old bull ring in the city of Tarragona, which are better ventilated, as polling stations for the first time.

“We can guarantee that the polling stations will be safe,” Bernat Solé, the leading Catalan government official in charge of the vote’s preparations, said this week. While mail-in voting is up to a record 284,000 requests, voters are being encouraged to stagger their voting throughout the day.

Those particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 are encouraged to vote between 9 a.m. and noon. The general population is supposed to vote from noon until 7 p.m. That leaves the final hour until polls close at 8 p.m. for those voters who are either infected or quarantined due to recent contact with an infected person.

Poll workers will be provided with high-grade face masks, as well as a full protection suit — gloves, body covering, and face shield — for use during that final hour when the contagion risk is the highest. Authorities have also made 80,000 tests available for workers who want to be tested before election day.

This election will be the first since an incredibly divisive vote in 2017 in the aftermath of a failed attempt by a secessionist-controlled Catalan government to declare independence from the rest of Spain. Pro-secession forces maintained a slim majority, holding 70 seats in the 135-member chamber, in that December 2017 vote but on less than half of the popular vote thanks to election laws that give more weight to underpopulated areas.

With nine parties running, no single one is expected to win an outright majority. Political observers expect that the secession question will still hold sway over the electorate and only further entrench the roughly equal split in the population.

“I don’t think much will change,” said Ana Sofía Cardenal, political science professor at the Open University of Catalonia. “The separatists will still be the most mobilized part of the electorate, and they will likely win another majority of seats, but not in votes.”

The two main pro-secession parties, Aragonès’ left-wing Republic Left of Catalonia and the center-right Together for Catalonia, will be vying to see which can claim the leadership of the forces who want an independent Catalan state between Spain and France.

However, unlike in recent years, they are not promising another breakaway bid in the short term. In-fighting between the two parties, which had formed a coalition government, eventually led to Sunday’s early election.

Their immediate goal is a government amnesty for the jailed leaders of the 2017 secession attempt. Illa, who stepped down from the Health Ministry last month, is poised to greatly boost the Socialist Party of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and lead the bloc of pro-union parties. The Socialists are forecast to inflict big losses on the liberal Citizens, which failed to capitalize on its victory in the 2017 election and was left in the opposition.

The new actor in the race is the far-right Vox party, which is set to enter the regional chamber for the first time, likely at the expense of the traditional conservative Popular Party, the leading opposition to Sánchez’s left-wing government on the national level. The Popular Party has scaled down its once-harsh rhetoric against the separatists in the election campaign.

“The Popular Party has a lot at stake,” Cardenal said. “If Vox beats it, the Popular Party’s strategy not only in Catalonia but across Spain will be affected.”

Renata Brito contributed to this report.

Spain's virus surge hits mental health of front-line workers

January 24, 2021

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The unrelenting increase in COVID-19 infections in Spain following the holiday season is again straining hospitals, threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year.

In Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar, the critical care capacity has more than doubled and is nearly full, with 80% of ICU beds occupied by coronavirus patients. “There are young people of 20-something-years-old and older people of 80-years-old, all the age groups,” said Dr. Joan Ramon Masclans, who heads the ICU. “This is very difficult, and it is one patient after another.”

Even though authorities allowed gatherings of up to 10 people for Christmas and New Year celebrations, Masclans chose not to join his family and spent the holidays at home with his partner. “We did it to preserve our health and the health of others. And when you see that this isn’t being done (by others) it causes significant anger, added to the fatigue,” he said.

A study released this month by Hospital del Mar looking at the impact of the spring's COVID-19 surge on more than 9,000 health workers across Spain found that at least 28% suffered major depression. That is six times higher than the rate in the general population before the pandemic, said Dr. Jordi Alonso, one of the chief researchers.

In addition, the study found that nearly half of participants had a high risk of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic attacks or substance- and alcohol-abuse problems. Spanish health care workers are far from the only ones to have suffered psychologically from the pandemic. In China, the levels of mental disorders among doctors and nurses were even higher, with 50% reporting depression, 45% reporting anxiety and 34% reporting insomnia, according to the World Health Organization.

In the U.K., a survey released last week by the Royal College of Physicians found that 64% of doctors reported feeling tired or exhausted. One in four sought out mental health support. “It is pretty awful at the moment in the world of medicine," Dr. Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said in a statement accompanying the study. “Hospital admissions are at the highest-ever level, staff are exhausted, and although there is light at the end of the tunnel, that light seems a long way away.”

Dr. Aleix Carmona, a third-year anesthesiology resident in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia, didn’t have much ICU experience before the pandemic hit. But as surgeries were cancelled, Carmona was summoned to the ICU at the Moisès Broggi hospital outside Barcelona to fight a virus the world knew very little about.

“In the beginning, we had a lot of adrenaline. We were very frightened but we had a lot of energy,” Carmona recalled. He plowed through the first weeks of the pandemic without having much time to process the unprecedented battle that was unfolding.

It wasn’t until after the second month that he began feeling the toll of seeing first-hand how people were slowly dying as they ran out of breath. He pondered what to tell patients before intubating them. His initial reaction had always been to reassure them, tell them it would be alright. But in some cases he knew that wasn’t true.

“I started having difficulty sleeping and a feeling of anxiety before each shift,” Carmona said, adding that he would return home after 12 hours feeling like he had been beaten up. For a while he could only sleep with the help of medication. Some colleagues started taking anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs. What really helped Carmona, though, was a support group at his hospital, where his co-workers unloaded the experiences they had bottled up inside.

But not everyone joined the group. For many, asking for help would make them seem unfit for the job. “In our profession, we can handle a lot,” said David Oliver, a spokesman for the Catalonia chapter of the SATSE union of nurses. “We don’t want to take time off because we know we will add to the workload of our colleagues.”

The most affected group of health care workers, according to the study, were nurse's aides and nurses, who are overwhelmingly women and often immigrants. They spent more time with dying COVID-19 patients, faced poor working conditions and salaries and feared infecting family members.

Desirée Ruiz is the nurse supervisor at Hospital del Mar’s critical care unit. Some nurses on her team have asked to take time off work, unable to cope with the constant stress and all the deaths. To prevent infections, patients are rarely allowed family visits, adding to their dependency on nurses. Delivering a patient’s last wishes or words to relatives on the phone is especially challenging, Ruiz said.

“This is very hard for ... people who are holding the hand of these patients, even though they know they will end up dying,” she said. Ruiz, who organizes the nurses’ shifts and makes sure the ICU is always staffed adequately, is finding it harder and harder to do so.

Unlike in the summer, when the number of cases fell and health workers were encouraged to take holidays, doctors and nurses have been working incessantly since the fall, when virus cases picked up again.

The latest resurgence has nearly doubled the number of daily cases seen in November, and Spain now has the third-highest COVID-19 infection rate in Europe and the fourth-highest death toll, with more than 55,400 confirmed fatalities.

But unlike many European countries, including neighboring Portugal, the Spanish health minister has for now ruled out the possibility of a new lockdown, relying instead on less drastic restrictions that aren’t as damaging to the economy but take longer to decrease the rate of infections.

Alonso fears the latest surge of virus patients could be as detrimental to the mental health of medical staff as the shock of the pandemic's first months. “If we want to be cared for adequately, we also need to take care of the health care workers, who have suffered and are still suffering," he said.

Spain's rising cases give pandemic hospital a second chance

January 19, 2021

MADRID (AP) — As soon as the lifeless body is silently pushed away on a stretcher, a cleaning battalion moves into the intensive care box. In a matter of minutes, the bed where the 72-year-old woman fought for over two weeks for another breath gets rubbed clean, the walls of glass isolating it disinfected with a squeegee.

There is little time to reflect on what has just happened, as death gives way to the possibility of saving another life. “Our biggest source of joy is obviously emptying a bed, but because somebody is discharged and not because they have passed away,” said Ignacio Pujol, the head of this Madrid ICU. “That's a little space there for somebody else to get another chance.”

As a surge of infections is once again putting Spain’s public health system against the ropes, the Nurse Isabel Zendal Hospital that employs Pujol, a project seen by many as an extravagant vanity enterprise, is getting a fresh opportunity to prove its usefulness.

Named after the 19th-century Spanish nurse who took smallpox vaccination across the Atlantic Ocean, the facility was built in 100 days at a cost of 130 million euros ($157 million), more than twice the original budget. It boasts three pavilions and support buildings over an area the size of 10 soccer fields, looking somewhere between a small airport terminal and an industrial warehouse, with ventilation air ducts, medical beds and state-of-the-art equipment. The original project was for 1,000 beds, of which roughly half have been installed so far.

The Zendal opened to a roar of competing fanfare and criticism on Dec. 1, just as Spain seemed to dampen a post-summer surge of coronavirus infections. By mid-December, it had only received a handful of patients.

But Spain on Monday recorded over 84,000 new COVID-19 infections, the highest increase over a single weekend since the pandemic began. The country’s overall tally is heading to 2.5 million cases with 53,000 confirmed virus deaths, although excess mortality statistics add over 30,000 deaths to that.

As the curve of contagion steepened after Christmas and New Year's, the Zendal has gotten busy. On Monday, 392 patients were being treated, more than in any other hospital in the region of 6.6 million.

Spain's surge follows similar infection increases in other European countries, most notably in the U.K. following the discovery of a new virus variant that experts say is more infectious. The London Nightingale, one of the temporary hospitals across Britain designed to ease pressure on the country's overwhelmed health care system, has also reopened for patients and as a vaccination center.

Spain's top health officials insist they have found no evidence that new variants wreaking havoc elsewhere are contributing in any way to its own rocketing infections. Some experts dispute that, claiming the country's limited ability to sequence coronavirus cases is distorting reality and that a new stay-at-home order is necessary.

On the ground, increasing hospitalizations for the virus already surpass the peak of the second resurgence. Nearly one out of every five hospital beds has a patient with COVID-19. The new illness is also taking up one-third of the country's ICU capacity and non-urgent surgeries are already being called off.

Joined by some medical experts, left-wing politicians and workers’ unions accuse Madrid's conservative government of spending on vote-attracting hardware instead of reinforcing a public health system they have underfunded for years. Investing in contact tracing and primary care previously, they say, could have averted the need for a Zendal altogether.

“Rather than the success they boast, the filling up of this makeshift hospital represents a tremendous failure of those at the helm of the pandemic's response, and also a failure of all of us as a society that could have done better," said Ángela Hernández, a spokeswoman for Madrid's main medical workers' union, AMYTS.

The last straw for the unions, she said, has been the regional government laying off medical staff who refuse to abandon their positions in regular hospitals when they are reassigned to the Zendal. "The project has been nonsense from beginning to end," Hernández said. "A few beds without adequate personnel don't make a hospital.”

Fernando Prados, Zendal's manager, says he doesn't mind the debate but the 750 patients treated over the last month and a half have already taken significant pressure off other hospitals. “We have already contributed in one way or another," Prados said. "We know that we will continue to have COVID patients and once the pandemic is over this infrastructure will be here for any other emergency.”

Past automatic glass doors, patients recover in modules of 8 beds, leaving little space for privacy but providing better monitoring of possible complications in their recovery, said Verónica Real, whose challenge as the head nurse has been to organize staff teams drawn from other hospitals.

“Some of the sanitary workers arrive with a degree of anger for all the noise out there about our hospital,” Real said. “But once here, the attitude completely changes.” The Zendal's managers say a modern ventilation system renews the entire facility's air every 5 minutes, which contributes to a safer work environment. But they are most proud of the expansion of the intermediate respiratory care unit, where patients receive varying types of assisted respiration to overcome lung inflammation.

The unit's chief, Pedro Landete, says by admitting potentially worsening patients in one of its 50 highly-equipped beds, they are reducing the number of people who later require the more demanding intensive care.

José Andrés Armada arrived with mild symptoms at the facility after all his family was infected despite what he said was a very careful approach to the pandemic. But the 63-year-old's health quickly deteriorated and last week he was on the brink of being intubated in one of the Zendal's dozen ICU boxes.

“I know that the economy is something to safeguard, but health is more important. We should be in lockdown by now. You can’t have bars and other places open," the former entrepreneur said. “I never imagined it could attack you in such a way."

AP reporter Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

Spain rejects virus confinement as most of Europe stays home

January 15, 2021

MADRID (AP) — While most of Europe kicked off 2021 with earlier curfews or stay-at-home orders, authorities in Spain insist the new coronavirus variant causing havoc elsewhere is not to blame for a sharp resurgence of cases and that the country can avoid a full lockdown even as its hospitals fill up.

The government has been tirelessly fending off drastic home confinement like the one that paralyzed the economy for nearly three months in the spring of 2020, the last time Spain could claim victory over the stubborn rising curve of cases.

Infection rates ebbed in October but never completely flattened the surge from summer. Cases started climbing again before the end of the year. In the past month, 14-day rates more than doubled, from 188 cases per 100,000 residents on Dec. 10 to 522 per 100,000 on Thursday.

Nearly 39,000 new cases were reported Wednesday and over 35,000 on Thursday, some of the highest daily increases to date. The surge is again threatening intensive care unit capacity and burdening exhausted medical workers. Some facilities have already suspended elective surgery, and the eastern city of Valencia has reopened a makeshift hospital used last year.

Unlike Portugal, which is going on a month-long lockdown Friday and doubling fines for those who don't wear masks, officials in Spain insist it will be enough to take short, highly localized measures that restrict social gatherings without affecting the whole economy.

“We know what we have to do and we are doing it,” Health Minster Salvador Illa told a news conference Wednesday, ruling out a national home confinement order and advocating for "measures that were a success during the second wave.”

Fernando Simón, the government's top virus expert, has blamed the recent increase in cases on Christmas and New Year's celebrations. “The new variant, even if it has an impact, it will be a marginal one, at least in our country," he said this week.

But many independent experts disagree and say Spain has no capacity to conduct the widespread sequencing of samples to detect how the new variants have spread, and that 88 confirmed and nearly 200 suspected cases that officials say have largely been imported from the U.K. are underestimating the real impact.

Dr. Rafael Bengoa, former director of Healthcare Systems at the World Health Organization, told The Associated Press the government should immediately enact "a strict but short” four-week confinement.

“Trying to do as little as possible so as not to affect the economy or for political reasons doesn’t get us where we need to be,” said Bengoa, who also oversaw a deep reform in the Basque regional health system.

The situation in Spain contrasts starkly with other European countries that have also shown similar sharp leaps in cases, increasingly more of them blamed on the more contagious variant first detected in the U.K.

The Netherlands, which has been locked down for a month, has seen the pace of infections starting to drop. But with 2% to 5% of new COVID-19 cases from the new variant, the country is from Friday requiring air passengers from the U.K., Ireland and South Africa to provide not only a negative PCR test taken a maximum of 72 hours before departure but also a rapid antigen test result from immediately before takeoff.

France, where a recent study of 100,000 positive tests yielded about 1% of infections with the variant, is imposing curfews as early as 6 p.m., and Health Minister Oliver Veran has not ruled out a stay-at-home order if the situation worsens.

Existing lockdowns or the prospect of mandatory confinement have not been questioned or turned into a political issue in other European countries. Ireland instituted a complete lockdown after widespread infections were found to be tied to the new variant. Italy has a color-coded system that activates a strict lockdown at its highest — or red — level, although no areas are currently at that stage.

In the U.K., scientific evidence of the new variant has silenced some critics of restrictions and spurred Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose measures that are strict but slightly milder than the nation's first lockdown. People have been ordered to stay home except for limited essential trips and exercise, and schools have been closed except for some exceptions.

In Germany, where the 7-day rolling average of daily new cases has recently shot up to 26 per 100,000 people, many high-ranking officials are arguing that the existing strict confinement order needs to be toughened and extended beyond its current end-of-January expiration.

Nordic countries have rejected full-on mandatory lockdowns, instead instituting tight limitations on gatherings and certain activities. Residents have been asked to follow specific recommendations to limit the spread of the virus.

In Sweden, the issue is both legal and political, as no law exists that would allow the government to restrict the population's mobility. While urging residents to refrain from going to the gym or the library, Swedish Prime Stefan Lofven said last month, “we don’t believe in a total lockdown,” before adding, “We are following our strategy.”

Policymakers in Spain seem to be on a similar approach, although it remains to be seen if the results will prove them wrong. On Thursday, they insisted that vaccinations will soon reach “cruising speed.”

But Bengoa, the former WHO expert, said vaccinations won't fix the problem immediately. “Trying to live with the virus and with these data for months is to live with very high mortality and with the possibility that new variants are created,” he said, adding that the new variant of the virus widely identified in the U.K. could make the original version start to seem like "a good one.”

Dr. Salvador Macip, a researcher with the University of Leicester and the Open University of Catalonia, says the combination of spiraling infections and the uncertainty over the new variants should be enough for a more restrictive approach, but that pandemic fatigue is making such decisions more difficult for countries like Spain, with polarized politics.

“People are fed up with making sacrifices that take us nowhere because they see that they will have to repeat them," Macip said.

Associated Press writers across Europe contributed.

A pandemic atlas: Spanish system fails, and the elderly die

December 16, 2020

MADRID (AP) — Patiently lining up, distanced, to buy bread. Watching grandchildren grow via screens. Cheering for a soccer team miles away from the stadium. Gathering for dinner, in reduced groups, at 7 p.m. — early enough so the party can be wrapped before curfew hits.

In 2020, Spaniards normalized things unimaginable only 12 months before. They also rediscovered how expressive eyes can be; mask-wearing is mandatory and widespread. But 2020 also will go down as the year in which an unknown virus shook the foundations of the social contract and exposed a system that failed to prevent so many deaths.

By March 13, when Spain announced a state of emergency, the virus already had been creeping in for weeks. At first, it appeared to have entered with sun-seeking vacationers and soccer fans returning from a game in Italy. But people who died of pneumonia as early as February were later confirmed to have been infected with the new coronavirus.

Two weeks after the first serious outbreaks hit Europe, Spain followed the Italian rulebook step by step, leaving most people secluded at home and paralyzing the economy. Politicians keep repeating that the system didn’t collapse during that first wave, when the country recorded 929 deaths in a single day. Many show pride in the “miracle” of multiplying hospital beds and intensive-care units to cope with the ill.

But ask health professionals and they will tell you that the actual cost was overworked staff who were sickened more than anywhere else in the world and suffered a huge emotional toll. Universal health care has been the backbone of Spain’s welfare state for decades. If officials in charge weren’t able to foresee an epidemic that was slowly but steadily morphing into a pandemic, something clearly went wrong. And it took weeks for doctors and nurses to receive vital protective equipment.

But perhaps the most tragic aspect of all was discovering how a rapidly aging society was unable to protect its elderly. At least 20,000 died in nursing homes during the first three months — overwhelmed hospitals turned away the very women and men who had lifted Spain out of the Franco-era isolation and paid a lifetime of contributions to its social security system.

And yet despite the increasing mistrust in the system, Spaniards showed an exemplary capacity for endurance and resilience. There were rulebreakers, just like everywhere else, among young people who insisted on partying, quarantine-skippers and virus deniers, along with opportunistic shows of political sectarianism.

But the country as a whole put up with arguably the world’s most uncompromising nationwide lockdown. For weeks, Spain stayed at home and sacrificed its economy in a way that will probably burden its future for years.

The virus spread came to a near-total halt. The prime minister declared victory. But eager to reopen, the tourism industry lobbied the government. People hurried out, eager to reunite with loved ones and make up for the lost time. It was meant to be a different summer, but a summer after all.

Very soon, contagion shot back up, this time placing Spain at the forefront of the resurgence in Europe. Then came hours of parliamentary debates, thousands of protocols for everything from re-opening hotels to properly handling COVID-19 corpses, and pledges to do better. But as the year draws to a close, no standardized and effective test and trace system has been rolled out nationwide.

Politicians blamed rule breakers and, with some of their measures, stigmatized the poor who couldn’t afford to isolate or work from home. Some even went as far as blaming the “lifestyle” of migrants.

Experts, who are demanding an external and independent investigation, blame a mix — a rush to reactivate the economy, bars and restaurants prioritized over schools or parks, plus observance of rules in public but relaxation indoors.

But did political incapacity also play a role? Some Spanish regional governments showed an embarrassing short-sightedness, trying to save money by shorting expenditures for primary care or to fund contact tracing.

By mid-December, Spain had reported 3,747 cases per 100,000 population. At year's end, Spaniards were showing a lack of faith in their institutions, with the doubts most apparent in official polls that found that 55% were suspicious of any COVID-19 vaccination and would not rush to get one.

Gas explosion rips through Madrid building, killing 4

January 20, 2021

MADRID (AP) — A powerful gas explosion tore through a residential building in central Madrid on Wednesday, killing four people and ripping the façade off the structure. A tower of smoke rose from the building, where repairs were being done to a gas boiler, and billowed through Toledo Street, near the city's center. Aerial footage shared by Spain’s National Police showed rubble covering a nearby schoolyard — though Madrid's mayor said no one was seriously injured at the school.

All students and staff were inside the school buildings at the time of the blast. At least 11 people were injured in the explosion, one seriously, the Madrid emergency service said in a tweet. The Spanish government’s representative for the Madrid region, José Manuel Franco, confirmed three casualties and the Catholic parish that owned the damaged building said the fourth victim was an electrician, a father of four, who was working on the boiler and had initially been considered missing.

A police spokesman on the ground told reporters that firefighters were trying to put out a small fire inside the building before they could bring in dogs, rescue teams, and experts to assess the structure of the damaged premises.

An Associated Press reporter saw emergency workers carry two bodies away from the area, one that firefighters covered with a blue blanket and another shrouded in reflective emergency sheeting. The building belongs to the nearby La Paloma Catholic Parish and hosted the offices and apartments for some of its priests, Madrid Archbishop Carlos Osoro told Spanish public broadcaster, TVE. He confirmed that none of the clerics were among the victims.

Emy Lee Grau, a local resident who was watching television in a building across the street, said that the moment of the blast was “terrifying.” “Everything shook, it felt like the roof was falling on us. We were terrified when we saw the amount of smoke coming out of the church’s building,” the 20-year-old Madrid resident told The Associated Press.

A nearby nursing home was evacuated and no injuries were initially reported among the 55 residents, Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida told reporters. They were taken to a hotel across the street and were later sent to other care homes, officials said.

Martínez Almeida also said that some mild damage had been identified in the school, where he said people suffered no more than “scratches.” Neighborhood resident Leire Reparaz said she heard the explosion and wasn't immediately sure where it was coming from.

“We all thought it was from the school. We went up the stairs to the top of our building and we could see the structure of the building and lots of gray smoke,” the 24-year-old said.

Associated Press photographer Paul White contributed to this report.

Boats emerge from Sahara sand to transport migrants to Spain

January 20, 2021

DAKHLA, Western Sahara (AP) — Beneath a star-packed sky in the Sahara, smugglers and handymen unearth a boat buried in the sand, a made-to-order vessel for carrying migrants from the North African coast to Spain’s Canary Islands.

With seasoned skill, the men hoist the blue-bottomed wooden boat atop a four-wheel drive vehicle that will take it from this inland hideaway to the Western Sahara shore. From there, the boat is meant to take 20 to 30 migrants into the Atlantic Ocean and across what the European Union’s border agency calls “the most dangerous migratory route in the world."

The boat handover is a crucial but little-seen piece of the migrant smuggling chain in disputed Western Sahara — a business that thrived last year, as the coronavirus pandemic plunged many Africans into poverty and, with other routes choked off, migration to the Canary Islands jumped eight-fold to the highest rates ever recorded.

Encouraged by aid from Spain and the EU, the Moroccan authorities who control Western Sahara — where some residents have long sought independence — are increasingly cracking down and thwarted a recent boat transfer witnessed by The Associated Press.

But many others succeed, as smugglers dodge police helicopter searchlights in the desert and reach fishing towns on the coast around Dakhla. The peninsula city boasts a thriving fishing port, and kitesurfing enthusiasts flock to its waters. But in recent months, its beaches have become a hot spot for smuggling networks eyeing the Canaries, 500 kilometers (300 miles) north.

Although irregular crossings to Europe dropped overall in 2020, the Canary Islands route saw a significant rise, with some 22,600 migrants arriving, making Spain the main point of entry for migrants trying to reach European shores last year, according to EU and Spanish government figures. At least 600 people died or disappeared trying to make the journey.

The resurgence of the route has been driven in part by COVID-19. The pandemic has wiped out livelihoods across Morocco by cutting off tourism revenue and periodically shutting down local businesses. While in the past most arrivals in the Canaries were from sub-Saharan Africa, now about half are Moroccans. Boats also routinely set out from the West African shores of Guinea, Gambia and Mauritania, according to the International Organization for Migration.

A resident of Dakhla who organizes trips for migrants said economic difficulties drove him to work for a smuggling network. “We had to make money and feed our families,” the 32-year-old told the AP on condition of anonymity because what he does is illegal.

He says he puts together one trip per week, while competitors send out up to 10 boats a night. He estimates as many as half of the migration attempts fail, either because of problems before departure or at sea.

One recent failure was visible on the shores of the Dakhla peninsula: the freshly charred remains of a migrant boat that caught fire. The fate of those aboard is unclear. IOM’s Missing Migrants Project provisionally recorded 601 deaths or disappearances on the Canary route last year, including at least 109 who left from Dakhla or were found near Dakhla. They are still investigating another eight missing boats with 355 people aboard.

The Dakhla resident said migrants pay $2,000 for the trip — a vast sum in Morocco, where the typical worker earns a few hundred dollars a month — but wouldn't say how much he earns himself. “I don’t know where they get the money from, but they want to leave at any cost," he said.

One recent night, a group of smugglers left Dakhla and headed inland, followed by a vehicle carrying a dozen handymen. They drove past police checkpoints then turned off the highway into the endless expanse of desert. The driver had a GPS coordinate on a phone and crossed the sand with the experience of someone who seemed to have taken the route many times.

At the meeting point, the men found a white tent and a young boat-builder — and unearthed a large boat. Just as they prepared to head back, the smugglers received a message about police “movement” and were told to leave the boat. Within minutes, the vessel was deep beneath the sand again — and the tent and equipment gone.

As the men drove back toward town, police stopped their car and searched it for signs of smuggling — but found none. The carpenter said he built the boat in the desert to avoid attracting attention — a common practice, though smugglers also sometimes simply buy boats from fishermen. The carpenter, who said he earns about 20,000 dirham ($2,000) per vessel, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the connection to smuggling networks.

When such boats make it to Dakhla, they find plenty of takers. It can take up to four days to get to the Canaries, and people arrive in terrible shape. They generally don’t take food on the journey and very little water, if any, according to migration agencies.

But deterring people from taking the risk is a huge challenge in a global economic crisis. As crossings surged last year to the highest level since EU border agency began collecting data in 2009, Spain sent top government officials to Senegal and Morocco in November to discuss how to stop the crossings.

The EU provides development aid to African countries to help them manage migration and has also set up a 5 billion-euro ($6 billion) trust fund to address the problem. For its part, Moroccan police have said they prevented nearly 10,000 migrants from crossing to Europe last year, and the government agreed to take back Moroccans who are deported.

But still hundreds of people attempt the journey. Already six deaths have been recorded in 2021 on the Canary route, most recently a boy who drowned. “It is absolutely one of the most deadly routes to the European Union," Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told EU lawmakers Tuesday. "And we don’t know actually how many lives have been lost.”

Associated Press journalists Lorne Cook in Brussels, Renata Brito in Barcelona and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Blizzard covers Spain in white, brings Madrid to standstill

January 09, 2021

MADRID (AP) — An unusual and persistent blizzard has blanketed large parts of Spain with snow, freezing traffic and leaving thousands trapped in cars or in train stations and airports that had suspended all services as the snow kept falling on Saturday.

The capital, Madrid, and other parts of central Spain activated for the first time a red weather alert, the highest, and called in the military to rescue people from vehicles trapped on everything from small roads to the city's major thoroughfares.

The national AEMET weather agency had warned that some regions would be receiving more than 24 hours of continuous snowfall due to the odd combination of a cold air mass stagnant over the Iberian Peninsula and the arrival of the warmer Storm Filomena from the south.

AEMET had said that up to 20 centimeters (nearly 8 inches) of snow could accumulate in large parts of the country but the build-up reached more than 50 centimeters even in urban areas. The storm is expected to move northeast throughout Saturday, the agency said.

Carlos Novillo, head of the Madrid emergency agency, said that more than 1,000 vehicles had become trapped, mostly on the city's ring road and the main motorway that leads from the capital to the south, toward the Castilla La Mancha and Andalucia regions.

“The situation remains of high risk. This is a very complex phenomenon and a critical situation," Novillo said Saturday morning in a message posted on social media. “We ask all those who remain trapped to be patient, we will get to you," he added.

Airport operator AENA said that the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas International Airport, the main gateway in and out of the country, would remain closed throughout the day after the blizzard bested machines and workers trying to keep the runways clear of snow.

All trains into and out of Madrid, both commuter routes and long-distance passenger trains, as well as railway lines between the south and the northeast of the country, were suspended, railway operator Renfe said.

The storm had caused serious disruptions or closed altogether over 430 roads by Saturday morning, according to Spain’s transit authorities, which urged people to stay indoors and avoid all non-essential travel.

The wintry weather even halted the country's soccer league, with some of the La Liga top teams unable to travel for games. A flight to Madrid carrying players of the current leader in the championship, Athletic Bilbao, had to return to the Bilbao airport, while the second-place Real Madrid team was unable to take off for its match against Osasuna on Saturday night.

The blizzard also yielded unusual images for many Madrileños, including a few brave people heading out with their ski gear on a main commercial avenue and in the central Puerta del Sol square, and even a dog sled that was seen on videos widely circulated on social media.

Police on curfew patrol as Spain fights nightlife infections

November 02, 2020

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — At 10:00 p.m. each night, Barcelona's professional crime fighters become wet blankets in uniforms. Police officers fan out across the coastal city in northeastern Spain to break up clandestine parties and to clear the streets of young adults drinking alcohol, enforcing a nationwide curfew the Spanish government ordered to slow down the spread of coronavirus.

Associated Press journalists accompanied officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the police force for Spain’s Catalonia region, on curfew patrol. Compared to the killings, bar brawls or domestic violence calls the officers are used to handling, busting people for being out after hours is easy work.

Yet for European nations battling the resurgence of COVID-19, the assignment is critical. “These measures save lives,” Catalonia police chief Eduard Sallent said. “We are enforcing a measure that is meant to prevent deaths and the collapse of our health care system.”

Without tourists around to clog Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella, the old town area known for its buzzy late-night scene, patrol cars weaved through labyrinth-like alleys in search of scofflaws with bottles of booze in hand. Officers looked past homeless people and the occasional dog walkers.

They focused on spotting youths who had sneaked out to share a bottle, since the city's bars and nightclubs closed completely due to the virus, while also watching for anyone who might use the unusually empty streets as an opportunity to loot stores.

Uniformed officers, with some help from plainclothes agents, checked the identities of the people they found out and about and told them to go home. Most obeyed promptly. Some decided to make a run for it. Officers chased them down and searched them. Young men who resisted were pushed to the ground and briefly handcuffed. One inebriated woman screamed about her rights being violated. Those under 18 were taken to the police station to be retrieved by parents.

Spanish officials cited the Spanish youth custom of gathering on park benches to drink cheap liquor mixed with soft drinks — a practice called “botellón,” Spanish for “big bottle” — as a potential source of infections when Spain first emerged from its strict spring home confinement.

Some of the outdoor get-togethers can reach the level of a “macrobotellón" — mega-big bottle — and attract hundreds of participants. With face masks off and social distance reduced to inches, the partiers are easy targets for the virus.

Catalonia’s regional interior minister, Miquel Sàmper said declaring a curfew across Spain on Oct. 25 was unavoidable after some groups ignored calls to keep personal contacts and opportunities for exposure to a minimum.

“The prohibiting of night-time movement has one goal,” Sàmper said. “For weeks, we have said that no one should go out at night, or meet with several people, or consume alcohol at these parties called ‘botellón.’ But it is obvious from images we have all seen that we have not been successful."

Over 7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 250,000 virus-related deaths have been reported across Europe since the start of the pandemic. In recent days, European nations from Britain to Italy have reinstituted restrictions ranging from reduced business hours and curfews to partial or near-total lockdowns to control the surge of infections sweeping the continent.

The conflict between reining in personal desires for the greater public good or giving in to individual pleasure is at the heart of Europe's renewed struggle against the virus. Spain isn't the only place where hedonistic tendencies at night are being blamed. A big spike in cases in the northern Greek region of Serres was attributed to a party held to welcome first-year university students.

Residents in Marseille, France, alerted police to music from a nightclub that should have been empty due to virus restrictions but instead kept the party going. On Saturday, police in London discovered a rave attended by 1,000 people. British police warned that properties rented on Airbnb and other short-term services were being used as pop-up party venues.

In August, police in Scotland broke up a party attended by more than 300 people at a mansion near Edinburgh. The owners said on Facebook that the young man who booked the house had seemed “very pleasant” and they were shocked to be told by a neighbor that “there was a huge rave and police were in attendance.”

Dozens of students have been fined for organizing illegal gatherings, including four undergraduates in the central England city of Nottingham who received the maximum 10,000 pound ($13,000) penalty after police broke up a house party.

“The very last thing we want to be doing as police officers is to be issuing these fines, but we have a responsibility to enforce the law and to keep people safe,” Nottinghamshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Kate Meynell said.

In Spain, most of the enforcement effort has involving nudging stragglers indoors after curfew. But there have been some extravagant exceptions. Police raided a brothel in the autonomous community of La Rioja four times in eight days last month for violating health codes designed to control infections. The owner could be fined nearly 100,000 euros ($116,000).

In Madrid, police stopped the filming of a 50-person orgy. They said a pornographer arranged the event by making an open casting call with a pamphlet titled “Public Health Crime.” The weekend before Spain’s curfew took effect, police in Madrid also busted over 300 parties that violated a prohibition on get-togethers of more than six people. Even with the curfew in place, police broke up over 100 such gatherings in apartments and 22 “botellones” on Friday night alone.

Madrid officials say 30% of the country's new confirmed infections are in people ages 15-29 and that 80% of all known infections happen in groups of family members or friends. Madrid’s regional vice president, Ignacio Aguado, pleaded with young people to consider the consequences of their good times.

“The party you go to today can become the funeral of your father or grandfather in seven days or less," he said.

Jill Lawless contributed from London.

Spanish-flagged boat rescues 265 migrants in Mediterranean

January 03, 2021

ROME (AP) — A Spanish-flagged humanitarian ship on Sunday was seeking a port of safety for 265 migrants its crew rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in the last few days. The Open Arms charity tweeted that its vessel on Saturday had safely brought aboard 96 migrants who had been adrift in a wooden boat with without life vests in international waters. It said the passengers, most of them from Eritrea, included two women and 17 minors and were suffering from hypothermia.

In a separate operation two days before that rescue, Open Arms took aboard 169 migrants, who had departed Libyan shores, where many human traffickers are based. The traffickers launch vessels, many of them flimsy rubber dinghies or rickety fishing boats, crowded with migrants who hope to reach European shores to seek asylum. Some are fleeing conflict or persecution, but many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have been rescued at sea in recent years are fleeing poverty and thus are denied asylum by European Union countries.

Italy and fellow EU nation Malta have often refused docking permission to the humanitarian rescue boats, contending that most migrants want to reach jobs or relatives in northern Europe. Italian and Maltese government authorities have insisted other European nations do their share.