Date Published: 02/11/2020
ARCHIVED - 106 illegal immigrants intercepted off the Cartagena coast
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
All Mediterranean coastal regions of Spain were targeted by illegal migrants this weekend
Calm seas provided the perfect conditions for yet more boatloads of illegal immigrants to attempt the journey from the African coastline and across the weekend hundreds of migrants successfully reached Europe, with boats intercepted in Alicante province, Almeria, the straits of Gibraltar off the Andalucia coastline, the Canary Islands and even the Balearic Islands.
At least one person died this weekend making the crossing; one of the boats arriving in Los Cristianos in Tenerife included a corpse amongst its passengers, the individual concerned having died during the crossing, and on Sunday hundreds of Canary Islands residents in Mogán, on Gran Canaria took to the streets to protest against the lack of co-ordination in the management of the crisis on the islands, where an encampment was installed on 20th August to contain some of the new migrants , which the local town hall is calling “an encampment of shame” due to the less than sanitary conditions in which the immigrants are living, due to severe overcrowding and the lack of facilities in which to house the huge number of migrants who have reached the Canary Islands this summer.
Image 2; Ayuntamiento de Mogán
Here in the Murcia Region, 9 boatloads, containing 106 migrants, all Algerians, were intercepted as follows:
Río Guadalentín (Civil Guard) intercepted a boat with 10 migrants on board to the southeast of Monte de las Cenizas.
Río Guadalentín intercepted a boat with 11 migrants east of Monte de las Cenizas.
Río Guadalentín interceptedpatera with 5 migrants east of Monte de las Cenizas.
Calliope (Maritime Rescue) intercepted patera with 9 migrants southeast of Monte de las Cenizas.
Calliope intercepted patera with 10 migrants southeast of Mount of Ashes.
Calliope intercepted patera with 17 migrants southeast of Mount of Ashes.
Río Cervera (GC) intercepted patera with 17 migrants east of Monte de las Cenizas.
Mimosa (SM) intercepted patera with 16 migrants southwest of Monte de las Cenizas.
Río Cervera intercepted patera with 11 migrants to the Northwest of Monte de las Cenizas.
Total: 9 boats, 106 migrants
All were males, all in apparently good health, and all were Algerians,which means that these are not refugees but economic migrants, as the current situation in Algeria, although economically difficult, is not considered to be life threatening, so therefore any migrants from Algeria are not refugees. Algeria has no migration agreement with the EU and is not a member state, so any Algerians arriving via in small boats in an attempt to elude border controls, are considered illegal/ irregular.
It is now very common for some of those arriving in these boats to give a positive covid test, so all of those who arrived this weekend were taken to the Escombreras docks in Cartagena, where a temporary Cruz Roja installation carries out covid tests and health checks. Any of the immigrants found to have travelled in a boat with a covid positive is quarantined for 14 days in accordance with covid restrictions currently in place for everyone in Spain.