Date Published: 18/08/2020
ARCHIVED - Police detain ten migrants from a boat which landed on El Portús beach
ARCHIVED ARTICLE It’s not clear how many migrants were in the boat when it landed; the figure is believed to be around 30
During recent weeks the Murcia region has increasingly been the destination for boatloads of irregular migrants arriving in pateras (small boats) from Algeria.
Across the weekend of 24th-26th August more than 500 migrants arrived in dozens of small boats, and at least 200 more reached the coastlines of neighbouring Almería and Alicante at the same time; last weekend 130 more reached Murcia, three of them requiring air rescue from the Monte de las Cenizas in Cartagena. Other boats reached neighbouring regions, the same as in July, the idea of the organised criminal gangs who arrange these migrations being that a large number of boats spaced along the coastline, spreads coastguard resources thin and the chances of being detained are slimmer.
The migrants are not refugees, but are “economic migrants” from Algeria. Over 11,000 economic migrants have made the journey to Spain this year according to the latest Interior Ministry statistics.
Read the article; Irregular migrants escape again as Spain uses diplomatic tools to fight the problem at source” for more information about the way in which Spain is attempting to tackle the ongoing problem of irregular migration.
And again this morning, around 30 people are believed to have been in a boat which surprised bathers in the bay of El Portús when it landed on the beach at around 11am in the morning.
The occupants of the boat disappeared off into the hillsides of Galifa and Perín as beachgoers rang the police to advise them of what they had just witnessed.
Policia Local and Guardia Civíl immediately established a search operation in the surrounding area and located five young men and a woman in an advanced state of pregnancy and by lunchtime the total had risen to ten.
A further 20 irregular migrants are believed to have escaped detection at the moment, although police will continue to look for them.
The ten migrants were taken to the port area habilitated for the temporary accommodation of the irregular arrivals by the Cruz Roja until PCR testing confirms whether there are Covid positives amongst them.
At the weekend, seven of the 130 arrivals were found to be covid positive within hours of their arrival and the remainder will be quarantined for 14 days. Any non-positive migrants, deemed not to have had any contact with those who tested positive will be released after 72 hours as Spain currently has no means of repatriating them due to the closure of Algerian borders because of the Covid pandemic.
The presence of Covid has made an ongoing situation more complex and this same issue is facing not only Spain, but also other Mediterranean countries. The EU maintains a constant border force, FRONTEX, to deal with what it calls the "irregular migration" via the Mediterranean into Europe.
Image: Cruz Roja dispensing humanitarian aid to irregular migrants in Cartagena. Archive. Cruz Roja