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Date Published: 13/05/2022

ARCHIVED - Andalucia court slashes jail terms for two immigrant skippers because the boats were deemed safe

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

The captains of two small 'pateras' have been given lighter sentences in Almeria following a high court ruling

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Andalucia court slashes jail terms for two immigrant skippers because the boats were deemed safe

Two human traffickers who transported irregular immigrants from Algeria to Almeria have had their prison sentences reduced after the High Court of Justice of Andalucia (TSJA) ruled the boats were "in an acceptable condition", thereby reducing the risks involved in making the perilous crossing.

The defendants are actually involved in two separate cases, but have both had jail terms slashed after the aggravated crime of endangering the lives of the people on board was dismissed.

The TSJA brought into play the 2015 reform of the Penal Code which points out that each case must be examined individually.

So whilst the judges in Almeria applied the most serious sentence due to the risks to the migrants lives, the TSJA overruled this because the pateras were in "acceptable" conditions.

This relates directly to the shift in immigration trends in the Alboran Sea. The large boats of sub-Saharan Africans chartered in Morocco, generally boats in very precarious conditions, overloaded and with small engines, have been replaced by fast and solid fiber boats from the Algerian coasts.

Also read: 30 migrants rescued off the coast of Malaga

In the first case, the TSJA assessed the case and sentence ofan Algerian identified as Y., responsible for skippering a five-metre boat in May 2020. The paterista, as the boat captains are known in Spanish, took the irregular immigrants to Cala Invencible in the town of Villaricos (Cuevas del Almanzora). But as he set off on the return journey to Algeria he was chased and arrested by the Guardia Civil's Río Segura vessel.

Following the high court ruling, the Civil and Criminal Court in Almeria lowered the sentence from four years in prison to just one after it was heard the boat he was skippering had "security elements such as an electric bilge pump, a GPS and a compass".

In the second case, the accused Z. was arrested for skippering a six-metre by two-metre vessel with more than 10 people inside. He was intercepted by the Guard Civil's patrol boat Río Jiloca on March 23, 2021.

At high speed it was heading towards the Playa de los Muertos de Carboneras, where it ran aground. All of the passengers got off the boat except the detainee and another traveller.

The TSJA ruling means his five-year prison sentence has been cut to one-year.

"The boat was in good condition, resistant and built with fiberglass with a powerful engine to the point that the patrol boat that pursued him could not reach it," said the judge.