View source for Chafarinas Islands

{{Short description|Spanish archipelago}}
{{Infobox islands
| disputed           = yes
| name               = Chafarinas Islands
| image_name         = Chafarinas desde el cabo de Agua (2).jpg
| image_caption      = Chafarinas Islands viewed from Morocco
| image_size         = 
| image_map          = Chafarinas.jpg
| map_custom         = 
| local_name         = Islas Chafarinas
| native_name        = 
| other_names        = 
| location           = [[Mediterranean Sea]]
| coordinates        = 
| archipelago        = 
| total_islands      = 3
| major_islands      = [[Isla del Congreso]]<br/>[[Isla Isabel II]]<br/>[[Isla del Rey (Chafarinas)|Isla del Rey]]
| area_ha            = 52.5
| length             = 
| width              = 
| coastline          = 
| highest_mount      = 137 m
| elevation          = 
| country            = {{Flag|Spain}}
| country1           = [[Morocco]]
}}
[[File:Mapa del sur de España neutral.png|thumb|260px|Spain's {{lang|es|[[Plazas de soberanía]]}} in North Africa. The Islas Chafarinas are on the right.]]

The '''Chafarinas Islands''' ({{langx|es|Islas Chafarinas}} {{IPA|es|ˈislas tʃafaˈɾinas|IPA}}, {{langx|ber-Latn|Igumamen Iceffaren}} or {{lang|ber-Latn|Takfarinas}}, {{langx|ar|جزر الشفارين}} or {{lang|ar|الجزر الجعفرية}}), also spelled '''Zafarin''', '''Djaferin'''<ref name="britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/104294/Chafarinas-Islands |title=Chafarinas Islands |year=2011 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=September 7, 2011 }}</ref> or '''Zafarani''',<ref name="usps">{{cite web |url=http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immctry.htm |title= Index of Countries and Localities |year=2011 |publisher=[[United States Postal Service]] |access-date=September 7, 2011 }}</ref> are a group of three [[Spain|Spanish]] small [[islet]]s located in the [[Alboran Sea]] off the coast of [[Africa]] with an aggregate area of {{convert|0.525|km2|3|abbr=out}}, {{convert|45|km|1|abbr=on}} to the east of [[Nador]] and {{convert|3.3|km|1|abbr=on}} off the Moroccan town of [[Ras Kebdana]]. They are uninhabited except for a garrison of the Spanish Army,<ref name="Lechado"> [https://revistas.uned.es/index.php/ALDABA/article/view/20545/17034 MARÍA DEL CARMEN LECHADO GRANADOS: SOCIEDAD Y VIDA COTIDIANA EN LAS ISLAS CHAFARINAS] (pdf, in Spanish)</ref> though there was also a civil population roughly between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries.<ref name="Lechado" />

The Chafarinas Islands are one of the [[Geography of Spain|Spanish territories]] in [[North Africa]] off the Moroccan coast known as {{lang|es|[[plazas de soberanía]]}}. The islands are administered by Spain but also claimed by Morocco as part of its territory alongside other [[Plazas de Soberanía|Spanish overseas territories in Northern Africa]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sovereignlimits.com/boundaries/morocco-land|title=Morocco–Spain (Ceuta, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera & Melilla)|work=Sovereign Limits |access-date=23 April 2025}}</ref>

==History==
These offshore islands were probably the {{lang|la|Tres Insulae}} of the Romans and the {{lang|ar-Latn|Zafrān}} of the Arabs.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Chaffarinas|volume=5|page=800}}</ref>
They were uninhabited and unclaimed in 1848, when the French government decided to occupy them, in order to monitor the tribes living in the border area between Morocco and French Algeria. A small expedition under the command of then Colonel [[Patrice de MacMahon|MacMahon]] left Oran by sea and by land in January 1848 to take possession of the islands. Forewarned by its consul in Oran, Spain, which also coveted the Chafarinas, quickly dispatched a warship to the islands from Malaga. When the French arrived, the Spaniards had already taken possession of the islands in the name of Queen Isabel II.<ref>''L'Exploration'', Paris, vol. 18, 2nd semester 1884, p. 531.</ref>

==Geography==
The Chafarinas Islands are made up of three islands (from west to east, with areas in [[hectares]]):

* [[Isla del Congreso]] (25.6 ha)
* [[Isla de Isabel II]] (15.3 ha) (with garrison)
* [[Isla del Rey, Chafarinas|Isla del Rey]] (11.6 ha).

Under Spanish control since 1847, there is a 30-man<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20140415/54405035466/unos-30-militares-integran-guarnicion-militar-que-vigila-las-islas-chafarinas.html|title=Unos 30 militares integran guarnición militar que vigila las islas Chafarinas |date=15 April 2014 }}</ref> military garrison on Isla Isabel II, the only stable population on the small archipelago, down from 426 people in 1900 and 736 people in 1910. Small numbers of scientists, anti-trafficking police, and other authorized personnel sometimes increase the population to around 50.

==Natural history==
The islands had relevance in Spanish environmentalist circles during the 1980s and 1990s, as the last individual of [[Mediterranean monk seal]] in Spanish territory lived there until it disappeared in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.consumer.es/web/es/medio_ambiente/naturaleza/2006/05/29/152429.php|title=Foca monje del Mediterráneo |website=Eroski Consumer |date=28 May 2006 |access-date=2007-12-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613210927/http://www.consumer.es/web/es/medio_ambiente/naturaleza/2006/05/29/152429.php|archive-date=2018-06-13}}</ref> Nine out of eleven of its [[marine invertebrates]] are considered [[endangered species]] and it is the home of the second largest colony of endangered [[Audouin's gull]] in the world.<ref name = ElPais>Ceberia, Monica et al (17 September 2012) [http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/09/17/inenglish/1347895561_857013.html The last remains of the empire] El Pais in English, Retrieved 24 September 2012</ref> The islands have been recognised as an [[Important Bird Area]] (IBA) by [[BirdLife International]] because they support, as well as the Audouin's gull colony, a breeding colony of [[Scopoli's shearwater]]s, with some 800–1,000 breeding pairs estimated in 2001–2004.<ref name=bli>{{cite web |url=http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/chafarinas-islands-iba-spain|title= Chafarinas Islands|author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2021|website= BirdLife Data Zone|publisher= BirdLife International|access-date= 14 February 2021}}</ref>
[[File:Chafarinas Islands.jpg|thumb|Map of Chafarinas Islands]]

==Gallery==
<gallery perrow="5">
<!-- Deleted image removed: File:Plaza de soberania.gif|19th-century Spanish map showing the Chafarinas Islands -->
File:Chafarinas desde el cabo de Agua.jpg|Islas Chafarinas as seen from [[Cabo de Agua]]
File:Korallenmöve seitlich.jpg|[[Audouin's gull]], a [[Vulnerable species|Vulnerable]] species breeding on the islands
File:Isla de Isabel II desde el cabo de Agua.jpg|Island of Isabel II
File:Iglesia de la Purísima Concepción (Chafarinas) en 1893.jpg|Church of la Purísima Concepción on the island of Isabel II in 1893
File:Coat of Arms of the Chafarinas Islands.svg|Coat of arms of the Chafarinas Islands
File:Îles Zaffarines.JPG|Chafarinas Islands viewed from [[Ras Kebdana|Ras El Ma]], [[Morocco]]
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[Plazas de soberanía]]
* [[List of islands of Spain]]
* [[List of Spanish Colonial Wars in Morocco]]
* [[Spanish protectorate in Morocco]]

==References==
{{Commons category|Chafarinas Islands}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Administrative divisions of Spain}}
{{Outlying territories of European countries}}
{{Countries and territories of North Africa}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Coord|35|11|N|2|26|W|type:isle|display=title}}

[[Category:Chafarinas Islands| ]]
[[Category:Islands of Africa]]
[[Category:Archipelagoes of Spain]]
[[Category:Mediterranean islands]]
[[Category:Plazas de soberanía]]
[[Category:Territorial disputes of Spain]]
[[Category:Archipelagoes of Africa]]
[[Category:Natura 2000 in Spain]]
[[Category:Important Bird Areas of Spain]]
[[Category:Important Bird Areas of Mediterranean islands]]
[[Category:Seabird colonies]]